RARY 

LRSITY  OF 

1FORN1A 
FA  CRUZ 


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|)enrp  Cafcot  iotf^e 


SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES. 
HISTORICAL  AND  POLITICAL  ESSAYS. 
STUDIES   IN  HISTORY. 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.    In  American  Statesmen 
Series. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER.     In  American  Statesmen  Se- 
ries. 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON, 
men  Series.    2  vols. 


In  American  States- 


BALLADS  AND  LYRICS.    Edited  by  HENRY  CABOT 
LODGE. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


American  ^statesmen 


EDITED   BT 


JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 


American  ^tntrsmrn 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


BY 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

tfincrsi&e  press  Cambribge 


COPYRIGHT,   1882  AND  IQIO,   BY   HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

COPYRIGHT,   1898,   BY  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE  AND 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &    CO. 

ALL   RJGHTS  RESERVED 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

IN  the  history  of  the  United  States,  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln  stand  apart  in  a  monumental 
solitude.  They  belong  in  no  class;  no  one 
seeks  a  place  near  them,  or  challenges  even  a 
possible  comparison  with  them.  It  is  only  after 
we  have  established  them  in  this  grand  and 
undisputed  isolation  that  we  try  to  put  our 
other  statesmen  into  ranks  and  classes  accord- 
ing to  our  judgment  of  their  capacity  and  their 
services.  This  attitude  of  these  two  men  is  a 
peculiarity  in  our  annals  distinguishing  us  from 
other  peoples.  No  other  nation  has  heroes  fill- 
ing quite  the  like  relationship.  The  nearest 
approach  to  it  is  furnished  by  William  of  Or- 
ange. Neither  Julius  Caesar  nor  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  are  parallel  instances,  though  they 
overshadowed  respectively  all  other  Romans 
and  Frenchmen  ;  they  were  greater  than  others, 
yet  they  could  be  compared  and  measured  with 
others.  But  this  cannot  be  done  with  either 
Washington  or  Lincoln,  because,  apart  from 
greatness,  they  are  different  from  others. 


vi  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

When  we  come  to  make  out  the  list  of  our 
statesmen  of  the  first  rank,  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton would  probably  receive  at  least  a  plurality 
of  votes  for  the  highest  place.  In  the  minds  of 
his  countrymen,  his  memory  has  always  been 
surrounded  with  a  brilliant  halo,  has  always  had 
a  prestige  which  may  be  regarded  as  in  some 
respects  surprising.  For  when  readers  come 
down  to  the  actual  records  of  his  career,  they 
find  that  they  have  to  hear  chiefly  of  financial 
schemes,  the  management  of  the  treasury,  ar- 
rangements concerning  the  national  debt,  reve- 
nues, tariffs,  and  internal  taxation — dry  mat- 
ters, for  the  most  part,  and  not  often  enticing 
popular  interest.  None  the  less  it  is  the  case 
that  our  historical  writers  have  found  a  singular 
fascination  about  Hamilton ;  the  amount  of  lit- 
erature and  the  consequent  research  concerning 
him  have  been  very  great :  yet  there  is  not  any 
symptom  of  satiety ;  our  people  still  eagerly 
seize  upon  everything  which  is  written  as  to  his 
career,  and  seem  unable  to  hear  enough  of  the 
subject.  Such  a  condition  cannot  be  accounted 
for  by  the  tradition  of  his  personal  beauty  of 
countenance  and  charm  of  manner,  which  made 
him  a  leader  of  the  leaders  in  public  life,  neither 
by  the  interesting  tale  of  his  tragic  death.  The 
explanation  and  the  truth  lie  far  deeper.  Ham- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  vii 

ilton's  fame  indicates  the  unformulated  but  full 
appreciation  of  the  unquestionable  historic  fact 
that  he  was  the  real  maker  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States.  Washington  created,  or 
at  least  caused  to  be  created,  the  national  en- 
tity ;  Hamilton  did  actually  create  the  political 1 
entity. 

By  reason  of  these  facts,  the  life  of  Hamilton 
was  sure  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  vol- 
umes of  this  series ;  and,  since  so  much  careful 
writing  had  been  already  done  concerning  him,, 
the  selection  of  his  biographer  demanded  mora 
than  ordinary  consideration.  No  one  in  the 
country  had  at  that  time  made  a  more  thorough 
study  of  Federalism  than  Mr.  Lodge  had  done. 
His  ancestor,  George  Cabot,  had  been  one  of 
the  chiefs  of  the  Federalist  party  in  its  strong- 
hold of  New  England,  and  had  been  the  in- 
timate friend  of  Hamilton ;  and  the  testimony 
of  the  intimacy  still  lives  upon  Mr.  Lodge's 
library  wall  in  the  shape  of  Trumbull's  portrait 
of  Hamilton,  a  present  to  George  Cabot  as  a 
near  and  dear  friend.  Knowing  well  that,  if 
Mr.  Lodge  was  very  naturally  inclined  to  make 
a  hero  of  Hamilton,  he  at  least  practiced  a 
strictly  intelligent  and  reasonable  worship,  I 

1  I  regret  to  be  obliged  to  use  this  now  degraded  word, 
but  I  use  it  in  its  original  and  proper  classic  signification. 


viii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

was  greatly  pleased  to  have  him  accept  the  task 
of  writing  the  volume,  which  has  fulfilled  my 
expectation  in  every  yespeet.  It  is  a  just  as 
well  as  a  sympathetic  biography.  Since  writ- 
ing it,  Mr.  dodge  has  edited  the  new  edition  of 
Hamilton's  works ;  and  it  is  not  supposable  that 
any  writer  will  hereafter  have  access  to  any  im- 
portant materials  which  he  has  not  had  and 
used. 

JQUN  T.  MORSE,  JR.  i 

i   September,  1898. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  «*<» 

I.  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH        .        .  .      .  .     •        .  1 

II.  THE  REVOLUTION     ......  13 

III.  LAW  AND  POLITICS      .        .        •        •        •        .31 

IV.  THE  CONSTITUTION  .                .        .        .        .  49 
V.  THE  TREASURY  AND  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY  .  83 

VI.  THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY     .  '  115 

VII.  PARTY  CONTESTS  .......  134 

VIII.  FOREIGN  RELATIONS  AND  THE  MAINTENANCE  OF 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    .        .  151 
IX.  THE  JAY  TREATY  AND  THE  ADAMS  ADMINIS- 

TRATION    •••       •        .        .        .        .  185 

X.  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  —  DUEL  AND  DEATH     .  234 

APPENDIX        .        .       ••       «       •     .•••••  283 

INDBX  .  297 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


CHAPTER  I 

BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

ON  the  eleventh  day  of  January  in  the  year 
1757,  the  wife  of  a  Scotch  merchant  in  the  is- 
land of  Nevis  gave  birth  to  a  son,  who  received 
the  name  of  Alexander  Hamilton.1  Many  vary- 
ing elements  were  mingled  in  this  boy.  He  was 
a  British  subject  born  in  the  tropics,  Scotch 
on  his  father's  side  and  of  French  Huguenot 
descent  on  his  mother's,  and  to  this  conjunction 
many  of  the  qualities  which  Hamilton  exhibited 
in  after  life  may  be  traced.  But  that  which 
strikes  us  most  at  the  outset  is  his  extraordinary 
precocity ;  his  mind  and  character  seemed  to 
partake  of  the  nature  of  those  luxuriant  tropical 
plants  which  in  a  few  months  attain  a  growth 
permitted  only  after  years  of  conflict  and  care 
in  the  harsher  climate  of  the  North.  Upon  the 
childhood  of  Hamilton  even  the  exhaustive  and 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  A, 


2  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

devoted  labors  of  his  son  and  biographer,  Mr. 
John  C.  Hamilton,  fail  to  throw  much  light. 
His  mother,  who  apparently  possessed  an  un- 
usual degree  of  wit  and  beauty,  died  early.  His 
father  was  unsuccessful  in  business,  and  Alex- 
ander, the  only  surviving  child,  fell  to  the  care 
of  maternal  relations,  among  whom  he  picked 
up  a  rude,  odd,  and  desultory  sort  of  education, 
and  by  whom  he  was  placed  in  a  counting-room 
before  he  was  twelve  years  old. 

There  at  his  clerkly  desk  we  catch  the  first 
clear  glimpse  of  the  future  statesman  in  the  well- 
known  letter  addressed  to  his  friend  Edward 
Stevens :  "  I  contemn  the  groveling  condition 
of  a  clerk,  or  the  like,"  he  says,  "  to  which  my 
fortune  condemns  me,  and  would  willingly  risk 
my  life,  though  not  my  character,  to  exalt  my 
station.  I  am  confident,  Ned,  that  my  youth 
excludes  me  from  any  hopes  of  immediate  pre- 
ferment, nor  do  I  desire  it ;  but  I  mean  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  futurity."  The  expression 
savors  of  the  grandiloquence  of  the  last  century, 
but  the  thought  is  natural  and  even  sober,  and 
is,  moreover,  that  of  a  man,  and  yet  it  was  ut- 
tered by  a  boy  who  had  not  passed  his  thirteenth 
birthday.  At  the  same  tender  age  he  was  left 
in  charge  of  his  employer's  affairs,  and  some  of 
his  correspondence  of  that  time  has  been  pre- 
served to  us.  These  clear  and  sensible  letters 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  3 

of  business  have  nothing  in  themselves  unusual, 
but  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  they  should 
be  the  work  of  a  lad  whose  contemporaries  were 
studying  the  rudiments  of  grammar  on  school 
benches,  while  his  capacity  was  great  enough 
not  only  to  write  such  letters  but  practically  to 
manage  on  his  own  responsibility  the  affairs  of 
a  considerable  merchant. 

In  the  intervals  of  his  office  work  Hamilton 
read  and  wrote  much ;  Pope  and  Plutarch,  we 
are  told,  were  his  favorite  authors,  and  to  his 
exercises  in  composition  was  due  the  publication 
of  a  vivid  account  of  a  severe  hurricane  which 
raged  with  devastating  force  in  the  West  Indies. 
This  literary  effort  attracted  a  good  deal  of  at- 
tention, especially  among  those  vague  relatives 
to  whom  the  boy's  interests  were  intrusted,  and 
by  them  it  was  decided  that  so  much  talent  de- 
served wider  opportunities  than  could  be  found 
in  a  West  Indian  counting-house.  Funds  were 
provided,  and  in  his  fifteenth  year  Hamilton 
bade  a  final  adieu  to  his  birthplace  and  took 
ship  for  Boston,  where  he  arrived  in  October, 
1772.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  New  York,  and 
there,  thanks  to  letters  from  the  excellent  Dr. 
Knox,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  of  Nevis,  and 
one  of  the  boy's  earliest  friends,  he  found  wise 
and  good  counselors.  By  their  advice  he  en- 
tered  a  grammar  school  of  some  note  at  Eliza- 


4  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

bethtown,  where  he  extended  his  acquaintance, 
and  during  the  winter  pursued  his  studies  with 
the  fiery  and  unresting  energy  so  characteristic 
of  him  throughout  his  life.  At  odd  moments 
he  indulged  in  his  propensity  for  writing.  He 
produced  not  only  prose  but  poetry,  including 
hymns,  elegies,  and  verses  of  all  sorts,  which 
were  not  without  the  merit  inseparable  from  the 
work  of  an  active,  fresh,  and  fertile  mind.  At 
the  end  of  the  year  he  was  ready  for  college. 
His  first  thought  was  for  Princeton,  but,  as  he 
characteristically  proposed  to  go  through  the 
course  as  rapidly  as  he  could  without  regard 
to  classes,  the  rules  of  the  college  would  not 
permit  his  admittance,  and  he  entered  King's 
College  in  New  York,  where  he  prosecuted  his 
studies  with  the  aid  of  a  private  tutor  as  fast 
as  he  wished.  In  the  university  as  at  school 
he  threw  himself .  heart  and  soul  into  his  work, 
gathering  up  knowledge  with  quick  apprehen- 
sion, while  the  tireless  activity  of  his  mind  con- 
tinually sent  his  thoughts  ranging  into  other  and 
wider  fields  of  finance,  government,  and  politics. 
It  was  then  his  custom  of  an  afternoon,  as  we 
are  told,  to  walk  under  the  shadow  of  the  trees 
on  Batteau  Street,  plunged  in  thought  and  talk- 
ing eagerly  to  himself.  The  passers-by  would 
turn  to  look  at  the  small,  slight  youth,  still  a 
mere  boy  in  appearance,  dark  of  skin  and  with 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  5 

deep-set  eyes  ;  and  those  who  knew  the  "  young 
West  Indian,"  as  he  was  called,  already  specu- 
lated about  him  vaguely,  as  people  are  wont  to 
do  about  those  who  give  or  seem  to  give  obvious 
promise  of  an  illustrious  future.  But  while 
Hamilton  was  leading  the  reflective  life  of  a 
student,  and  meditating  beneath  the  shadow  of 
the  trees,  imbued  perhaps  with  the  "  prophetic 
soul  of  the  wide  world,  dreaming  of  things  to 
come,"  a  great  revolution  was  swiftly  coming  to 
its  crisis  about  him. 

Successful  men  are  those  who  take  advantage 
of  their  opportunities,  for  opportunities  are  not 
made  by  men,  but  for  them.  Hamilton,  we  may 
be  sure,  would  have  taken  full  advantage  of  any 
and  every  opportunity,  but  he  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  have  a  great  one  opened  to  him.  The 
question  was  which  side  in  the  gathering  con- 
flict he  would  espouse.  It  seemed  perhaps  more 
difficult  to  Hamilton  to  decide  then  than  it  does 
to  us  to  decide  for  him  now ;  and  yet  his  choice 
was  simple  and  his  selection  inevitable.  He  was 
singularly  free  in  making  his  decision.  He  was 
born,  it  is  true,  in  a  little  English  dependency 
and  had  always  been  a  provincial,  but  he  had  no 
family  in  New  York  to  warp  or  incumber  him ; 
his  ties  of  friendship  were  new  and  probably  as 
much  with  one  side  as  the  other;  and  he  was 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  his  own  master.  A 


6  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

visit  in  the  spring  of  1774  to  Boston,  the  hotbed 
of  resistance  to  England  and  possessing  an  at- 
mosphere very  different  from  that  of  New  York, 
where  the  Tories  were  in  the  ascendant,  prob- 
ably affected  him  not  a  little,  and  led  him  to  a 
close  examination  of  the  all-absorbing  contro- 
versy. He  himself  tells  us  that  he  had  formed 
"  strong  prejudices  on  the  ministerial  side  until 
he  became  convinced  by  the  superior  force  ofr 
the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  colonial  claims." 
This  explanation  is  exceedingly  characteristic 
and  highly  instructive.  His  masterful  temper 
and  innate  love  and  respect  for  government, 
order,  and  strong  rule  dictated  his  prejudices 
His  clear,  vigorous  mind,  and  his  profound  be.- 
lief  in  reasoning  and  argument,  which  so  pre- 
vailed with  him  always,  showed  him  plainly  that 
the  colonies  were  in  the  right.  But  after  every 
allowance  for  the  conviction  brought  by  reason, 
an  instinctive  sense  of  what  must  be  the  true 
path  for  him  to  follow  undoubtedly  played  a 
large  part  in  Hamilton's  decision.  He  was 
young,  unknown,  an  adventurer  in  a  strange 
land,  and  burning  with  a  lofty  ambition.  The 
world  was  before  him,  and  his  fortune,  which  he 
meant  should  be  a  great  one,  was  to  be  made. 
Constituted  authority  and  a  continuity  of  gov- 
ernment offered  at  best  but  little  to  the  most 
successful  provincial.  Change,  revolution,  and 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  7 

war  might  bring  almost  anything  in  the  way  of 
military  or  civic  glory.  He  chose  rightly,  and 
he  also  chose  wisely,  when  he  cast  in  his  lot  with 
the  opponents  of  England. 

New  York  was  in  possession  of  the  Tories. 
The  Assembly  was  ministerial,  narrow-minded, 
and  with  a  majority  controlled  by  the  home 
government.  Upon  this  Assembly,  in  order 
to  force  New  York  into  line  with  the  other  colo- 
nies now  preparing  for  the  first  Congress,  it  was 
decided  to  bring  what  in  these  days  would  be 
called  "  pressure."  With  this  purpose  a  great 
meeting  in  the  fields  was  held  on  July  6,  1774, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  patriot  leaders.  Ham- 
ilton was  present  listening  to  the  orators.  Like 
the  boy  Pitt  under  the  gallery  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  Hamilton  was  impressed  by  what  was 
left  unsaid  far  more  than  by  all  the  rhetoric  of 
the  speakers.  Filled  with  the  belief  that  he 
could  supply  the  omissions  which  he  detected, 
he  made  his  way  to  the  platform  and  stood  be- 
fore the  people.  There  were  a  few  moments  of 
youthful  embarrassment  and  hesitation,  while 
the  crowd  stared  at  the  audacious  boy,  and  then 
nature  asserted  itself  and  his  words  flowed  un- 
checked. Hamilton  was  never  eloquent  in  the 
sense  in  which  Chatham  or  Mirabeau  or  Henry 
were  eloquent,  for  he  had  not  the  imaginative 
and  poetical  temperament.  But  he  had  the  elo- 


8  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

quence  of  sound  reason  and  clear  logic,  combined 
with  great  power  and  lucidity  of  expression,  and 
backed  by  a  strong  and  passionate  nature.  As 
he  poured  out  with  all  his  young  fervor  thoughts 
long  pent  up  in  his  breast,  we  can  well  believe 
that  the  crowd,  murmuring  "It  is  a  collegian ! 
it  is  a  collegian ! "  were  deeply  stirred  by  the 
oratory  of  one  who  spoke  so  well,  although  he 
was  a  stranger  and  in  appearance  a  mere  boy. 

Once  embarked,  Hamilton  was  too  honorable, 
too  high-minded,  and  too  thoroughly  satisfied  of 
the  soundness  of  his  convictions  ever  to  waver 
or  turn  back,  and  tempting  offers  from  the  other 
side  at  a  later  day,  when  his  value  and  his 
powers  were  better  known,  passed  idly  by  him. 
He  was  not  only  firm  of  purpose,  but,  having 
taken  his  part,  he  pushed  on  in  every  direction 
open  to  him  with  his  accustomed  zeal.  In  those 
days  public  opinion  was  formed  and  the  power 
of  the  press  exerted  through  pamphlets,  or  by 
essays  addressed  to  the  printer,  and  published 
by  him  in  his  newspaper  as  communications. 
The  ablest  men  of  the  country  employed  these 
channels  to  reach  the  public  mind,  and  great 
importance  was  attached  to  such  productions. 
Two  tracts  of  considerable  force  assailing  Con- 
gress and  its  measures,  and  written  by  two  of 
he  ablest  writers  on  the  Tory  side,  appeared  in 
ihe  autumn  of  1774.  The  effect  of  these  pan> 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  9 

phlets  was  severe  to  the  patriots,  and  while  they 
were  casting  about  for  a  champion  Hamilton 
answered  the  attack.  The  Tories  replied,  and 
Hamilton  rejoined  in  a  second  pamphlet  of  some 
seventy-eight  pages.  Both  these  tracts,  which 
showed  marked  ability,  were  variously  attributed 
to  the  most  eminent  leaders,  and  when  their 
authorship  was  known  the  young  writer  gained 
a  wide  and  immediate  reputation.  To  argue 
points  of  constitutional  law  and  of  political  jus- 
tice and  expediency  was  above  all  things  con- 
genial to  Hamilton  with  his  already  well-stored 
mind,  acute  logic,  and  capacity  for  discussion. 
The  pamphlets  were  excellent  of  their  kind  at 
a  time  when  such  performances  were  strictly 
judged,  and,  taken  in  connection  with  the  youth 
of  the  author,  deserved  the  great  success  which 
they  obtained.  They  gave  Hamilton  an  assured 
position,  and  led  to  the  rejected  offers  from  the 
Tories  to  which  allusion  has  just  been  made. 

The  winter  of  1775  passed  away,  New  York 
was  at  last  forced  into  the  Congress,  the  battles 
came  in  Massachusetts,  and  revolution  began. 
Meanwhile  Hamilton  continued  his  arguments 
against  England  in  vigorous  newspaper  essays, 
took  part  in  public  meetings,  and  devoted  his 
time  to  a  study  of  military  affairs,  seeking  also 
for  practical  experience  by  joining  a  volunteer 
corps  commanded  by  Major  Fleming.  Besides 


10  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

showing  nerve  in  the  performance  of  some  try- 
ing military  duties  which  were  becoming  very 
necessary  in  those  troublous  times,  Hamilton 
appeared  prominently  on  several  occasions  in 
efforts  to  repress,  by  argument  and  by  fearless 
personal  exposure,  outbreaks  of  mob  violence. 
The  most  memorable  of  these  occasions  was  one 
which  happened  during  the  disturbances  caused 
by  the  British  ship  of  war  Asia  opening  fire 
on  the  town.  Persons  and  property  had  been 
injured,  and  there  was  wild  commotion  and  an 
angry  rising  of  the  people  in  New  York.  The 
king's  storehouse  was  pillaged,  the  Connecticut 
troops  were  sent  for,  and  Liberty  Boys  rushed 
through  the  streets,  threatening  outrage  and 
ruin  to  every  Tory.  Most  prominent  among 
the  adherents  of  the  Crown  was  Dr.  Cooper, 
president  of  the  college,  and  thither  the  angry 
mob  hurried,  bent  on  mischief  of  a  desperate 
sort.  When  they  arrived  they  found  Hamilton 
and  his  friend  Troup  on  the  steps  of  the  build- 
ing ready  to  delay  their  entrance.  The  former 
at  once  stepped  forward  and  began  to  reason 
vigorously  with  the  crowd,  and  to  denounce 
their  disorderly  conduct.  While  Hamilton  was 
thus  engaged,  and  while  the  populace  halted  to 
listen  with  amazement,  no  doubt,  to  the  eager 
words  of  a  youth  whom  they  had  last  seen  ex- 
posed to  the  fire  of  the  Asia  occupied  with  other 


BOYHOOD  AND   YOUTH  11 

patriots  in  removing  cannon,  the  excellent  Dr. 
Cooper  fled,  after  warning  the  people  from  a 
high  window  not  to  be  guided  by  such  a  mad- 
man as  his  former  pupil  who  was  then  address- 
ing them. 

The  doctor's  mistake  was  natural  enough. 
He  could  not  believe  that  Hamilton,  patriot  and 
rebel,  was  resisting  the  people  and  restraining 
their  violence  for  the  sake  of  an  old  Tory  cler- 
gyman. There  is,  indeed,  something  rather  sur- 
prising as  well  as  quite  fine  in  the  spectacle  thus 
presented  of  a  boy,  whose  blood  was  hot  with 
the  new  strong  wine  of  revolution,  risking  his 
life  and,  what  he  loved  probably  much  more,  his 
influence  and  his  popularity,  in  behalf  of  law, 
order,  and  mercy.  In  a  similar  fashion  he  inter- 
fered to  save  the  life  of  one  Thurman  from  what 
was  then  known  as  "  Travis's  mob ; "  and  when 
the  Connecticut  horse  broke  into  the  town  and 
carried  off  the  types  of  Rivington,  the  Tory 
printer,  Hamilton  was  filled  with  indignation  at 
this  violent  suppression  of  opinion,  and,  if  he 
could  have  got  a  few  men  to  go  with  him,  would 
have  ridden  after  the  marauders  and  recaptured 
the  property.  These  instances  of  self-restraint 
and  cool  bravery  are  all  remarkable  in  so  young 
and  so  enthusiastic  a  man  as  Hamilton.  In  the 
midst  of  revolutionary  excitement  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  come  forward  to  check  his  own  party, 


12  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

to  oppose  and  censure  their  excesses,  to  take  the 
side  of  the  unpopular  minority  in  behalf  of 
mercy,  justice,  order,  free  speech,  and  a  free 
press.  But  whether  he  succeeded  or  failed  in 
these  attempts  they  were  creditable  alike  to  his 
sense  and  courage ;  they  show  strongly  his  early 
and  deep  detestation  of  anything  like  disorder, 
and  above  all  his  hatred  of  that  most  noxious  of 
all  forms  of  confusion,  a  riotous  city  rabble. 

But  the  time  for  preparation  was  closing  fast. 
Early  in  1776  the  New  York  convention  ordered 
a  company  of  artillery  to  be  raised.  Hamilton 
applied  for  the  command,  and  his  examination 
quickly  dispelled  the  doubts  of  his  fitness  in 
those  who  suspected  mere  youthful  presumption. 
He  recruited  his  company  rapidly,  and  spent 
upon  its  equipment  his  second  and  last  remit- 
tance from  home.  He  had  now  burned  his  ships 
behind  him.  Youth,  study,  and  the  days  of 
dreaming  and  meditation  were  gone.  He  was  a 
man  striving  for  everything  that  an  ambitious 
man  can  desire.  He  had  already  entered  upon 
the  stage  of  life  at  an  age  when  most  boys  were 
still  in  school  or  college,  and  a  very  exciting 
and  bustling  drama  he  found  in  progress.  He 
had  youth,  health,  great  talent,  a  strong  will, 
courage,  ambition,  and  his  sword.  With  these 
weapons  his  fortune  was  to  be  made. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  REVOLUTION 

THE  artillery  company  quickly  showed  tlie 
talent  of  its  commander.  Hamilton  devoted 
himself  to  it  as  he  did  to  everything  he  under- 
took, and  by  unceasing  drill  soon  made  its  evo- 
lutions conspicuous  in  an  army  where  discipline 
was  novel  and  models  were  rare.  The  young 
captain,  by  the  excellence  of  his  troop,  attracted 
the  attention  of  Greene,  who  fell  into  conversa- 
tion with  him,  was  impressed  by  his  ability,  and 
introduced  him  to  Washington,  thus  putting 
him  at  this  early  day  in  the  line  of  advancement. 
The  kindness  of  the  Rhode  Island  general  was 
never  forgotten  by  Hamilton,  who  became  one 
of  Greene's  strongest  supporters  and  warmest 
admirers,  at  a  later  day  declaring  him  to  have 
been  the  first  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  Ham^ 
ilton,  however,  was  soon  tested  by  a  severer 
experience  than  any  which  drill  or  parade  could 
offer.  He  won  his  spurs  at  the  disastrous  battle 
of  Long  Island,  where  with  great  coolness  and 
courage  he  brought  up  the  rear  in  the  masterly 
retreat  which  saved  the  army,  and  gave  the  first 


14  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

conspicuous  proof  of  that  daring  and  sagacious 
genius  for  which  Washington  was  as  eminent  in 
good  as  in  evil  fortune.  With  the  rest  of  the 
army  Hamilton  took  part  in  the  retreat  up  the 
Hudson,  distinguished  himself  by  the  admirable 
manner  in  which  he  served  his  battery  at  White 
Plains,  and  offered  to  recover  by  storm  Fort 
Washington,  —  a  piece  of  reckless  daring  to 
which  Washington  refused  his  consent.  From 
New  York  Hamilton  went  with  the  army  in  their 
terrible  march  through  New  Jersey,  and  shared 
in  the  brilliant  campaign  of  Trenton  and  Prince- 
ton. By  this  time,  after  six  months  of  hard 
fighting,  his  company  was  reduced  to  twenty- 
five  men,  who  retained  their  old  discipline,  but 
little  else.  Their  commander  had,  however, 
made  a  name  as  a  dashing  and  gallant  officer, 
and  this,  added  to  his  literary  reputation,  led  to 
his  appointment  as  one  of  Washington's  aides 
with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  on  March  1, 
1777,  when  he  was  barely  twenty  years  old. 

Hamilton  acted  wisely  in  accepting  this  new 
position,  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  fitted.  He 
seems  to  have  regarded  the  step  with  some  mis- 
giving, and  to  have  felt  that  he  had  made  a 
considerable  sacrifice.  His  self-confidence,  nat- 
ural enough  under  the  circumstances,  was  then 
as  always  too  strong;  but  in  this  instance  he 
controlled  it.  Extraordinary  success  and  the 


THE  REVOLUTION  15 

consciousness  of  great  talents  made  it  easy  for  a 
very  young  man  to  believe  that  if  he  remained 
in  the  line  nothing  was  beyond  his  reach,  and 
that  no  prospect  was  too  brilliant  for  reasonable 
hope.  Yet  it  is  more  than  probable  that  if  he 
had  continued  a  line  officer  he  would  have  at- 
tained no  higher  rank  than  that  which  he  ulti- 
mately reached,  while  he  would  have  sacrificed 
experiences  and  connections  of  inestimable  value. 
With  all  his  precocity  and  undoubted  aptitude 
for  military  affairs,  he  was  still  too  young  to 
have  obtained  the  highest  commands  before  the 
end  of  the  war,  whereas,  as  a  member  of  Wash- 
ington's family,  he  was  brought  into  close  asso- 
ciation with  the  greatest  man  of  the  age,  whose 
friendship  he  was  able  to  win  and  retain.  As  a 
member  of  the  staff  of  the  commander-in-chief, 
Hamilton's  duties  were  various  and  highly  re- 
sponsible. He  did  not  have  the  independent 
command  for  which  he  sighed,  but  he  was  present 
at  all  the  battles  in  which  the  army  was  engaged, 
took  more  or  less  part  in  them,  and  always 
gained  honor  and  distinction.  His  principal 
occupation  was  in  the  conduct  of  Washington's 
immense  correspondence.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  endless  letters,  reports,  and  proclamations 
which  issued  from  headquarters  was  the  work  of 
Hamilton.  In  regard  to  these  documents  there 
has  been  a  very  needless  discussion.  To  claim 


16  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

for  Hamilton  the  merit  of  all  the  correspond- 
ence which  bears  Washington's  name,  but  which 
is  in  the  handwriting  of  his  aide-de-camp,  and 
to  speak  of  it  as  if  Hamilton  was  the  man  who 
directed  the  movements  of  armies  and  informed 
Congress  of  their  duty,  is  absurd.  Washington 
was  fortunate  in  having  on  his  staff  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  men  of  the  day,  with  a  vigorous, 
original,  and  well-stored  mind,  fertile  in  thought, 
a  lucid  and  acute  reasoner,  and  a  master  of  a 
clear  and  forcible  style.  We  may  be  sure  that 
nothing  passed  through  Hamilton's  hands  with- 
out being  put  in  the  strongest  and  most  con- 
densed form,  and  at  the  same  time  amplified  and 
adorned ;  but  we  may  be  equally  sure  that,  how- 
ever much  the  general  profited  by  the  sugges- 
tions of  his  able  secretary,  the  central  ideas  and 
guiding  principles,  whether  conveyed  in  a  word 
or  dictated  at  length,  were  the  intellectual  pro^ 
perty  of  the  man  who  signed  those  letters  and 
reports  with  the  name  of  George  Washington. 
The  kernel  of  a  letter  may  lie  in  a  simple  nega- 
tive or  affirmative,  which  when  fully  expressed 
will  cover  pages,  but  the  author  of  the  letter  is 
he  who  directs  the  decisive  "  yes  "  or  "  no,"  and 
not  the  man  who  clothes  the  thought  in  fitting 
words.  This  in  no  sense  implies  detraction.  It 
is  a  wrong  to  any  man,  be  he  great  or  small,  to 
attribute  to  him  something  to  which  he  is  not 


THE  REVOLUTION  17 

entitled,  and  to  present  Hamilton,  even  in  the 
most  indirect  way,  as  the  author  of  Washing- 
ton's dispatches,  is  merely  to  injure  the  former 
and  neither  to  hurt  nor  help  the  latter.  Hamil- 
ton's work  as  military  secretary  —  and  there  is 
a  great  mass  of  it  extant  —  deserves  all  praise, 
and  greatly  redounds  to  his  credit.  As  his  en- 
thusiastic comrade,  the  gallant  Laurens,  said,  he 
certainly  held  the  pen  of  Junius  in  the  American 
army,  and  to  that  gifted  pen,  employed  as  freely 
in  another's  service  as  in  his  own,  and  to  the 
versatile  and  original  mind  of  its  possessor, 
Washington  owed  much  and  gave  every  proof 
that  he  appreciated  the  debt.  For  those  inter- 
ested in  a  close  study  of  Hamilton's  mind  and 
character,  the  dispatches  which  he  wrote  as  sec- 
retary, as  well  as  those  which  he  composed  in 
his  individual  capacity,  are  of  great  value.  ID 
them  we  can  trace  the  rapid  development  of  a 
keen  and  powerful  intellect.  There  we  can  see 
displayed  sagacity,  foresight,  acuteness,  and 
force  in  every  affair  to  which  they  relate,  whether 
military  or  civil.  There,  too,  we  perceive  the 
fertility  of  resource,  the  vigorous  self-confidence, 
unhesitating  decision  and  undaunted  spirit,  which 
the  young  aide  afterwards  made  conspicuous  on 
broader  fields.  All  these  qualities  —  and  they 
form  a  goodly  list  —  were  moreover  in  a  state  of 
rigorous  growth.  There  is  nothing  in  llinml* 


18  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ton  to  suggest  his  namesake  who  bore  the  famous 
sobriquet  of  "  single  speech,"  who  was  content 
with  one  splendid  effort  and  then  silent  forever. 
Hamilton's  correspondence,  on  the  contrary, 
during  his  service  on  Washington's  staff,  con- 
stantly improves.  In  this  and  in  many  other 
ways  he  shows  that  reserved  force  which  is  one 
of  the  most  essential  elements  of  greatness,  and 
the  capacity  to  gather  increased  strength,  like 
Antaeus,  from  each  fresh  contact  with  the  earth 
of  every-day  events  in  a  time  of  strain  and  trial. 
The  most  important  duty  which  fell  to  Ham- 
ilton while  serving  as  an  aide  was  his  mission  to 
Gates  to  seek  reinforcements.  At  that  moment 
additional  troops  were  essential  to  Washington, 
and  they  were  only  to  be  obtained  from  the 
northern  army.  While  Washington  was  bearing 
defeat,  and  fighting  on  with  grim  pertinacity, 
Gates,  in  command  of  an  army  formed  from 
the  hardy  levies  of  the  North,  had  achieved  a 
signal  victory  which  has  taken  a  place  among 
the  fifteen  decisive  battles  of  the  world's  his- 
tory. The  surrender  of  Burgoyne  had  made 
Gates  —  to  whom  as  little  was  due  for  the  vic- 
tory as  could  well  be  the  case  with  the  com- 
manding officer  —  the  idol  of  the  North,  and 
of  New  England  especially.  To  offend  Gates 
personally  was  a  small  matter,  but  to  offend 
the  northern  colonies,  just  then  dissatisfied  with 


THE  REVOLUTION  19 

Washington,  would  have  been  a  very  serious 
affair.  As  the  superior  officer  of  Gates,  Wash- 
ington had  the  right  to  command,  and  at  the 
same  time  this  was  precisely  what  he  wished  to 
avoid.  Hamilton  was,  therefore,  to  get  the 
troops  without  using,  except  in  the  last  resort, 
the  imperative  authority  which  he  carried  in 
his  pocket.  It  was  a  delicate  and  difficult  mis- 
sion. Hamilton  was  never  conspicuous  for  the 
patient  and  tolerant  qualities  which  make  a 
great  diplomat,  least  of  all  in  the  days  of  im- 
petuous youth,  and  yet,  thanks  to  his  strong 
sense  and  clear  perception  of  facts,  he  acquitted 
himself  most  admirably.  Gates,  naturally  a 
weak  man,  was  blinded  by  the  glamour  of  his 
great  victory.  When  the  wishes  of  the  oom- 
mander-in-chief  were  made  known  to  him  he 
held  back,  hesitated,  and  finally  gave  way. 
Hamilton  got  his  troops  by  the  exercise  of 
much  patient  persistence,  and  kept  the  tempt- 
ing letter  of  command  out  of  sight.  On  his 
way  back  he  also  pushed  forward  the  delaying 
Putnam,  treating  that  general  much  more  cava- 
lierly than  Gates,  but  only,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
as  the  unmanageable  temper  of  the  old  wolf- 
killer  deserved.  Hamilton  won  much  credit,  as 
well  as  the  approbation  of  Washington,  for  his 
excellent  behavior  on  this  occasion.  Not  long 
afterward  he  was  sent  to  Newport  on  a  similar 


20  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

mission  to  the  French,  and  again  he  showed  him« 
self  a  good  envoy,  although  he  failed  to  bring 
our  allies  to  accede  to  Washington's  wishes. 

One  other  episode  of  Hamilton's  career  as  an 
aide-de-camp  deserves  notice  in  any  account  of 
his  life.  His  position  brought  him  into  close 
connection  with  the  wretched  attempt  to  betray 
West  Point.  It  fell  to  him  to  see  and  strive 
to  console  Mrs.  Arnold  in  the  first  agony  of  her 
distress  after  the  flight  of  her  traitor  husband, 
and  it  was  his  lot  also  to  be  much  with  the 
gifted  and  ill-fated  Andre.  In  letters  to  Miss 
Schuyler,  his  future  wife,  he  depicted  the  scene 
with  Mrs.  Arnold;  he  described  the  whole  un- 
happy affair,  and  dwelt  much  upon  Andre  and 
upon  his  expiation  of  another's  crime  in  which 
he  had  been  but  a  tool.  In  all  this  there  was 
deep  pathos,  and  it  acquires  a  fresh  interest  for 
the  student  of  Hamilton's  character  as  it  shows 
the  deep  feeling  and  tenderness  of  his  nature. 
No  account  of  Arnold's  treason  and  of  the  ac- 
tors in  it  has  ever  equaled  Hamilton's  letters, 
which  in  their  clear  and  forcible  sentences  are 
full  of  a  subdued  eloquence,  touching  us  and 
appealing  to  us  even  now  by  the  emotion  of  a 
strong  and  reserved  nature. 

Such,  in  brief,  were  the  salient  events  in 
Hamilton's  experience  of  four  years  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Washington's  staff.  But  not  the  least 


THE  REVOLUTION  21 

striking  incident  of  this  period  of  his  life  was 
that  which  resulted  in  the  sudden  close  of  his 
service  with  the  commander-in-chief.  We  have 
Hamilton's  own  account  of  the  affair,  written 
on  February  18,  1781,  two  days  after  it  hap- 
pened. Washington  had  sent  for  Hamilton  to 
come  to  him.  The  latter,  delaying  a  few  min- 
utes in  obeying,  found  the  general  at  the  head 
of  the  stairs,  who  reproved  him  with  no  undue 
sharpness,  saying  that  to  keep  him  waiting  was 
a  mark  of  disrespect.  Whereupon  Hamilton 
replied,  "  I  am  not  conscious  of  it,  sir ;  but  since 
you  have  thought  it,  we  part."  One  can  hardly 
read  this  youthful  ebullition  even  now  without 
a  smile.  The  fashion  has  prevailed  of  treating 
this  quarrel  as  if  the  two  participants  stood  upon 
equal  ground,  and  this  puts  the  whole  matter 
on  a  thoroughly  false  footing.  Let  us  look  at 
the  pair  a  moment  as  they  stand  there  at  the 
head  of  the  stairs  in  the  New  Windsor  house. 
One  is  a  boy  in  years,  although  of  unusual  and 
manly  maturity  of  mind.  He  is  a  stranger 
in  the  land  who  has  shown  himself  possessed 
of  great  and  promising  talents ;  he  has  proved 
himself  an  able  writer,  a  brave  soldier,  an  ex- 
cellent secretary.  This  small,  slight,  dark-eyed 
stripling  is  facing  George  Washington,  and 
brimming  over  with  a  sense  of  offended  dignity. 
Washington  stands  there  in  the  prime  of  his 


22  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

middle  age,  large  and  imposing  in  personal  ap- 
pearance. He  is  one  of  the  foremost  men  in 
the  world,  a  great  general  and  statesman,  grave 
and  impressive  as  becomes  a  man  who  has  car- 
ried in  his  hands  the  life  of  a  nation.  Some  of 
Hamilton's  biographers  have  referred  to  this 
affair  as  one  of  Washington's  outbursts  of  pas- 
sion. Like  all  great  men  Washington  had 
strong  passions,  like  very  few  great  men  he  had 
them  under  almost  complete  control.  When 
they  did  break  forth,  as  happened  now  and  then 
in  great  stress  of  feeling,  they  bent  everything 
before  them,  and  there  was  a  hush  among  those 
who  listened.  If  Washington  had  spoken  to 
Hamilton  as  he  did  to  Lear  about  St.  Glair's 
defeat,  that  fine  reply,  one  is  inclined  to  think, 
would  not  have  been  uttered.  But  deep  waters 
are  ruffled,  not  stirred,  by  a  passing  breeze. 
Washington  spoke  to  Hamilton  in  a  tone  of 
sharp  but  proper  reproof.  Few  generals,  prob- 
ably, would  have  spoken  so  courteously  and 
gently  to  a  young  aide,  who  had  kept  them 
waiting,  and  thus  sinned  against  the  first  of 
military  virtues,  prompt  obedience.  The  event 
in  itself  is  trivial  enough.  We  smile  at  Hamil- 
ton's dignity,  and  at  his  youthful  satisfaction 
with  his  own  conduct ;  but  Washington's  behav- 
ior, then  and  subsequently,  is  not  without  impor- 
tance. He  not  only  endeavored  at  once  to  heal 


THE  REVOLUTION  23 

the  breach,  although  Hamilton  repelled  his  ad- 
vances, but  he  continued  to  interest  himself  in 
his  former  aide,  and  suffered  their  friendship 
to  undergo  no  diminution.  There  was  more  in 
this  than  the  magnanimity,  absolutely  without 
flaw,  which  Washington  always  showed.  It 
was  a  tribute  to  Hamilton's  abilities  from  one 
of  the  best  judges  of  men  who  ever  lived.  He 
saw  Hamilton's  capacity ;  he  cared  nothing  for 
his  little  outburst;  and  he  was  determined  to 
retain  his  hold  upon  one  in  whom  he  perceived 
the  possibility  of  great  service  to  the  country 
at  some  future  time.  He  did  this,  too,  without 
advancing  Hamilton  over  the  heads  of  other 
men  to  the  position  which  the  latter  felt  he 
would  have  gained  if  he  had  not  joined  the 
staff.1  Washington  watched  over  his  fortunes 
at  Yorktown,  where  Hamilton  had  a  command 
and  obtained  the  perilous  privilege  of  leading 
the  assault  upon  one  of  the  outworks  of  the 
enemy.  The  opportunity  was  not  lost.  At 
the  head  of  his  men  Hamilton  rushed  with  all 
his  fiery  impetuosity  upon  the  British  redoubt, 
carried  all  before  him  and  took  the  position  in 
ten  minutes,  doing  his  work  much  more  quickly 
than  the  French,  to  whom  the  other  redoubt 
had  been  assigned.  With  this  dashing  exploit 
Hamilton'g  military  career  came  to  an  end,  and 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  B. 


24  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

he  soon  after  betook  himself  to  the  pursuits  of 
civil  life. 

I  have  touched  upon  these  incidents  of  Ham- 
ilton's army  life  because  they  throw  a  strong 
light  upon  his  subsequent  career,  enable  us  to 
understand  his  course  in  aftertimes,  and  furnish 
the  key  to  certain  qualities  which  explain  his 
thought  and  action.  But  there  are  other  phases 
of  mind  and  character  suggested  and  exhibited 
by  this  eventful  war  period.  Between  his  leav- 
ing the  quiet  college  and  the  storm  of  the  York- 
town  redoubt,  he  was  brought  into  close  contact 
with  many  persons,  and  it  thus  becomes  possible 
to  study  his  capacity  of  dealing  with  other  men, 
a  matter  of  the  first  importance  for  any  success 
in  active  life,  and  especially  for  a  public  man. 
In  his  position  in  the  army  there  was  no  oppor- 
tunity for  so  young  a  man  to  win  general  popu- 
larity, but  this  was  something  which  Hamilton 
never  attained,  and  indeed  never  sought.  His 
genius  and  achievements  were  not  of  the  kind 
which  appeal  to  the  hearts  and  imagination  of 
the  people  ;  he  was  too  great  a  man  ever  to  de- 
scend to  the  arts  of  a  demagogue,  and  he  was 
too  definite  a  man  ever  to  have  that  vague  popu- 
larity which  hangs  about  some  persons  without 
any  assignable  reason.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
Hamilton  had  an  extraordinary  power  of  making 
friends,  and  this  comes  out  strongly  in  his  army 


THE  REVOLUTION  25 

life.  It  was  not  merely  that  he  won  the  respect 
of  men  of  character  and  ability;  any  man  of 
equal  talents  was  sure  to  do  that ;  but  he  gained 
the  affectionate  devotion  of  men  of  that  sort> 
and  attached  them  to  him.  He  was  evidently 
very  attractive,  and  must  have  possessed  a  great 
charm  of  manners,  address,  and  conversation. 
But  the  real  secret  was  that  he  loved  his  friends, 
and  so  they  loved  him.  We  see  this  on  every 
side.  All  his  comrades  on  the  staff,  and  all  the 
officers,  young  and  old,  who  knew  him  and  were 
not  hostile  to  Washington,  loved  him,  and  were 
proud  of  his  talents.  The  same  was  true  of  the 
young  French  officers,  with  whom  he  was  much 
thrown  on  account  of  his  perfect  command  of 
their  language,  a  very  rare  accomplishment  in 
the  colonies.  From  Lafayette  down  they  all 
liked  Hamilton,  and  spoke  to  him  and  about  him 
with  all  the  quick  enthusiasm  and  lively  affec- 
tion of  their  race.  In  all  this  we  see  the  germs 
of  the  power  which  afterwards  gave  Hamilton 
a  personal  following,  much  smaller  than  that  of 
many  of  our  party  leaders,  but  in  proportion  to 
its  numbers  unequaled  in  our  history  for  char- 
acter, ability,  and  devotion  combined. 

Another  question  which  grows  out  of  this 
period  is  that  of  Hamilton's  military  ability. 
Whatever  he  did  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution 
was  well  done,  but  a  large  part  of  his  service 


26  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

was  rather  political  and  diplomatic  than  mili- 
tary, and  *he  was  too  young  to  have  the  largest 
opportunities.  He  proved  himself  a  soldier  of 
courage,  dash,  and  coolness ;  he  showed  that  he 
had  both  nerve  and  foresight,  all  very  essential 
qualities,  but  he  had  no  chance  to  show  more 
than  this.  He  certainly  believed  that  he  had 
in  him  the  making  of  a  great  general,  and  his 
military  temperament  and  aptitude  for  military 
affairs  go  far  to  confirm  this  belief.  If  he  had 
had  the  opportunity,  it  may  be  safely  said  that 
he  would  have  been  a  distinguished  general,  but 
whether  he  would  have  been  a  great  one  must 
necessarily  remain  a  matter  of  mere  conjecture. 
Yet,  whatever  his  talents  for  war  may  have 
been,  the  ruling  passion  was  that  of  a  statesman, 
and  even  in  the  midst  of  the  hardships  of  the 
camp  and  field  nothing  could  repress  Hamilton's 
strong  natural  bent.  Neither  physical  discom- 
fort nor  visions  of  military  glory  could  keep 
him  from  meditating  on  questions  of  government 
and  finance.  At  the  beginning  of  1780,  being 
then  just  twenty-three  years  old,  he  addressed 
an  anonymous  letter  to  Robert  Morris  on  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  Confederacy,  at  that  time 
in  their  worst  state,  and  threatening  far  more 
than  the  British  armies  to  bring  the  Revolution 
to  an  untimely  end.  The  paper  begins  with  a 
careful  consideration  of  the  condition  of  the 


THE  REVOLUTION  27 

nearly  worthless  currency  and  the  causes  of  its 
depreciation.  It  all  looks  very  simple  as  we  read 
it  now,  but  at  that  time  political  economy  was 
unknown,  the  modern  systems  of  financiering 
were  unheard  of,  and  the  true  causes  of  financial 
phenomena  were  still  hidden.  Away  from  such 
books  and  authorities  as  there  were,  and  relying 
on  his  memory  for  his  facts,  Hamilton  gives 
an  analysis  and  explanation  of  the  depreciation 
of  the  currency  admirable  in  its  clearness  and 
soundness,  thoroughly  modern  in  reasoning,  and 
conclusive  in  argument.  Young  as  he  was,  he 
allowed  with  singular  penetration  for  the  part 
which  the  imagination  plays  in  all  such  matters 
as  credit  and  currency,  and  reckoned  on  it  as  a 
factor  with  great  exactness.  This  little  essay 
on  inflated  and  depreciated  currency  is  as  valua- 
ble to-day  as  when  it  was  written  a  century  ago, 
and  proves  beyond  question  an  inborn  genius 
for  finance,  showing  its  author  indeed  to  be  en- 
titled to  stand  with  Turgot  and  Pitt  as  a  pioneer 
in  what  has  since  become  the  most  important 
department  of  practical  government.  This  re- 
markable essay  was  only  preliminary.  The 
youthful  aide-de-camp  had  his  remedy  outlined 
in  his  head  and  ready  for  execution.  He  pro- 
posed to  meet  existing  difficulties  by  gradual 
contraction,  a  tax  in  kind,  and  a  foreign  loan, 
which  last  was  to  form  the  basis  of  a  national 


28  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

bank.  The  great  purpose  of  the  bank,  and 
indeed  the  pith  of  Hamilton's  scheme,  was  to 
unite  the  interests  of  the  moneyed  classes  in  the 
support  of  the  government  credit.  The  bank 
was  to  be  a  great  trading  and  banking  corpora- 
tion in  private  hands,  but  backed  and  partly 
controlled  by  the  government,  to  which  it  was  to 
be  under  certain  obligations.  The  details  were 
carefully  worked  out,  but  the  leading  ideas  suf- 
fice to  show  the  grasp  of  Hamilton's  mind  and 
the  germs  of  his  future  policy. 

A  few  months  later  Hamilton  addressed  a 
letter  to  James  Duane,  then  a  member  of  Con- 
gress from  New  York,  on  the  subject  of  the 
government.  A  large  part  of  this  document 
is  devoted  to  the  army,  then  in  sorry  plight, 
owing  to  the  inefficiency  of  Congress  and  the 
ill-adjusted  relations  of  the  States.  The  root 
of  the  evil  Hamilton  finds  in  the  weakness  of 
the  central  government  and  the  jarring  and  in- 
dependent powers  of  the  States.  He  urges 
stronger  government,  single  men  at  the  heads 
of  departments,  and  the  absolute  control  by 
Congress  of  certain  functions,  such  as  making 
treaties,  controlling  the  army  and  navy,  and  the 
like.  To  bring  these  things  to  pass,  he  says  that 
Congress  must  either  resume  the  discretionary 
powers  which  it  exercised  at  the  outset  and  then 
Buffered  to  decline,  or  else  a  convention  must  be 


THE  REVOLUTION  29 

called  to  form  a  new,  strong,  and  well-defined 
central  government.  Neither  scheme  was  possi- 
ble at  that  time,  and  the  second,  which  was  soon 
of  course  to  be  the  true  remedy,  was  at  that  mo- 
ment of  war  and  confusion  more  impracticable 
even  than  the  first.  The  letter  concludes  with 
an  outline  of  the  bank  as  the  best  method  of 
dealing  with  the  most  crying  evils.  The  whole 
paper  is  strongly  centralizing  in  tone,  especially 
for  that  time,  although  Hamilton  had  not  then 
got  beyond  thinking  that  senates  were  liable  to 
become  dangerously  aristocratic. 

A  month  later  he  writes  a  brief  letter  to  the 
New  York  patriot,  Isaac  Sears,  in  which  he  sums 
up  the  results  of  his  reflections  as  follows  :  — 

"  We  must  have  a  government  with  more  power. 
We  must  have  a  tax  in  kind.  We  must  have  a  foreign 
loan.  We  must  have  a  bank  on  the  true  principles 
of  a  bank.  We  must  have  an  administration  distinct 
from  Congress,  and  in  the  hands  of  single  men  under 
their  orders.  We  must  above  all  things  have  an  army 
for  the  war,  and  an  establishment  that  will  interest 
the  officers  in  the  service." 

Six  months  afterwards,  in  the  spring  of  1781, 
to  Robert  Morris,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
finances,  he  writes  again,  setting  forth  his 
scheme  for  a  national  bank  with  all  the  addi- 
tions and  improvements  obtained  by  a  year's 
reflection. 


30  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

These  letters  are  all  interesting,  not  merely 
because  they  display  Hamilton's  talents  in  the 
strongest  way,  and  show  the  breadth  and  scope 
of  his  mind,  but  because  they  exhibit  in  the 
clearest  light  the  constructive  character  of  his 
intellect.  He  was  not  only  thinking  like  every- 
body else  how  the  war  could  be  brought  to  a 
successful  conclusion,  and  present  difficulties 
conquered,  but  also  how  a  new  system  could  be 
built  up  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  fabric  of  society 
and  government.  His  time  had  not  come  ;  the 
world  about  him  was  occupied,  as  it  always  is, 
with  the  immediate  exigency ;  it  had  not  even 
finished  the  work  of  destruction,  and  was  very 
far  from  having  cleared  the  ground  and  made 
up  its  mind  to  build  again.  Hamilton's  ideas, 
as  those  of  far-seeing  and  brilliant  men  are  apt 
to  be,  were  a  little  before  their  time.  But  peo- 
ple were  coming  nearer  to  them  every  day,  and 
in  a  few  years  just  such  a  man  would  be  needed. 
The  beginning  was  indeed  close  at  hand,  for 
Hamilton  went  from  the  army  almost  at  once  to 
a  stage  where  he  had  opportunity  for  his  first 
experiments,  and  could  learn  in  a  hard  school 
the  immense  task  which  lay  before  him  of  con- 
verting his  theories  into  practice  and  turning 
his  schemes  into  realities. 


CHAPTER  IH 

LAW   AND   POLITICS 

IN  the  midst  of  the  war  Hamilton  had  found 
time  to  fall  in  love.  On  his  mission  to  Gates  he 
met  at  Albany  Miss  Elizabeth  Schuyler.  The 
acquaintance  thus  begun  was  renewed  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  and  then  ripened  into  an  engage- 
ment. Late  in  the  same  year,  on  December  14, 
1780,  he  was  married.  This  was  in  every  way 
a  most  fortunate  event  for  Hamilton.  He  not 
only  won  a  most  charming  and  intelligent  woman 
for  his  wife,  but  he  allied  himself  with  a  family 
rich,  well  known,  and  of  the  best  position  in  the 
community.  His  father-in-law,  General  Schuy- 
ler, a  brave,  generous,  honest  gentleman,  was 
universally  beloved  and  respected,  and  thus 
Hamilton  secured  the  firm  anchorage  which  his 
wandering  fortunes  needed.  He  was  no  longer 
an  isolated  stranger,  as  much  at  home  in  one 
state  or  city  as  in  another,  but  a  member  of  a 
strong  family  deeply  rooted  in  their  ancestral 
soil.  On  the  other  hand,  Hamilton  brought  to 
this  respectable  and  important  Dutch  family  not 
only  the  society  of  an  attractive  man,  but  the 


32  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

rising  fortunes  of  one  whose  brilliant  talents 
had,  as  everybody  could  divine,  a  great  destiny. 
Certain  it  is,  that  he  was  most  warmly  received 
by  his  wife's  family,  and  the  wide  connection 
thus  formed  by  marriage  was  soon  held  by  the 
much  stronger  tie  of  personal  friendship. 

But  whatever  else  Hamilton  brought  his  wife, 
worldly  goods  were  not  among  his  possessions. 
Love  of  money  was  never  one  of  his  qualities, 
and  he  had  an  abiding  confidence  in  his  own 
capacity  to  earn  at  any  time  as  much  as  he 
needed,  so  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  he  found 
himself  with  a  wife  and  child  and  no  resources 
except  his  arrears  of  pay  and  his  own  abilities. 
He  steadfastly  refused  General  Schuyler's  gen- 
erous offers  of  assistance,  and  betook  himself  at 
once  to  a  study  of  the  law,  the  profession  by 
which  he  intended  to  get  both  fame  and  bread 
and  butter.  At  the  conclusion  of  a  few  months' 
study,  early  in  the  summer  of  1782,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  His  preparation  was  hasty, 
and  his  knowledge,  when  he  came  to  the  bar, 
must  have  been  exceedingly  imperfect,  but  with 
his  intensity  of  application  and  readiness  of 
mind  he  had  undoubtedly  gathered  in  that  short 
time  a  good  deal  of  legal  learning ;  and,  what 
was  far  more  to  the  purpose,  it  was  not  an  undi- 
gested mass  of  information,  but  was  thoroughly 
systematized  and  arranged.  Everything  that 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  33 

Hamilton  had  in  his  mind,  everything,  certainly, 
to  which  he  gave  his  attention,  took  the  shape 
of  argumentative  statement.  All  his  serious 
ideas  fell  naturally  into  the  forms  of  logic,  and 
with  a  little  effort  he  could  throw  his  thoughts 
on  any  subject  into  numbered  paragraphs,  and 
make  them  assume  the  guise  of  a  concise  brief. 
In  a  word,  Hamilton  had,  above  all  things,  a 
classifying  and  logical  mind.  His  hasty  legal 
studies  came,  of  course,  within  the  operation  of 
this  rule  of  mental  action.  As  fast  as  he  ac- 
quired his  knowledge  of  law,  it  fell  into  well- 
defined  form  and  system,  so  that  when  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  all  he  had  learned  was  com- 
pactly stated  and  neatly  arranged  in  a  little 
manual,  which  was  found  in  manuscript  by  those 
who  came  after  him,  and  which,  as  we  are  told, 
did  good  service  to  others  whose  minds  did  not 
have  a  clarifying  effect  upon  everything  that 
was  poured  into  them. 

But  while  Hamilton  was  studying  law,  and 
even  before  he  left  the  army,  others,  conscious 
of  his  talents  and  feeling  that  he  deserved  well 
of  his  country,  had  pressed  him  forward  for 
public  office.  He  could  have  been  a  commis- 
sioner of  the  French  loan,  but,  always  generous, 
he  gave  way  in  order  that  his  friend  Laurens 
might  go  to  Europe  and  rejoin  his  father,  fresh 
from  imprisonment  in  the  Tower.  His  name  was 


34  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

brought  forward  and  talked  about  in  connection 
with  the  peace  commission ;  and  finally,  in  June, 
1782,  Kobert  Morris,  who  appreciated  Hamil- 
ton's abilities,  appointed  him  continental  receiver 
of  taxes  for  New  York.  Vested  with  his  new 
authority,  Hamilton  betook  himself  to  Pough- 
keepsie,  where  the  legislature  was  sitting,  and 
where  his  restless  spirit  soon  became  apparent. 
First  came  a  set  of  resolutions  demanding  a 
new  convention  and  a  better  union  of  the  States. 
This  the  legislature  was  induced  to  pass.  Next 
followed  a  clear  and  scientific  plan  of  taxation 
to  replace  the  impotent  and  chaotic  system  then 
existing,  but  this  the  legislature  would  not  adopt. 
Then  appeared  an  address  to  the  public  credit- 
ors, letters  to  the  governor,  pertinacious  appli- 
cations to  all  branches  of  the  government  and 
all  members  of  it,  and  vigorous  efforts  to  obtain 
for  the  central  government  the  tardy  and  sorely 
needed  supplies.  The  results  of  all  this  zealous 
work  were  pitiful.  Hamilton  squeezed  out  a 
few  thousand  pounds,  and  with  these,  and  his 
resolutions  in  favor  of  a  new  convention  of  the 
States,  he  was  fain  to  be  content.  His  activity 
bore  fruit,  however,  in  another  direction.  The 
acquaintance  he  made  and  the  impression  he 
produced  resulted  in  his  election  by  the  legisla- 
ture as  a  member  of  Congress,  in  which  once 
brilliant  but  now  feeble  body  he  took  his  seat  in 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  35 

November,  1782,  having  resigned  his  receiver- 
ship a  month  before. 

When  Hamilton  entered  Congress,  it  had 
fallen  far  below  that  predecessor  of  1774-75 
which  extorted  the  applause  of  Europe,  and 
which  probably  had  a  higher  average  of  ability 
than  any  legislative  body  of  equal  numbers  of 
which  anything  is  known.  It  had  not,  however, 
in  1782,  reached  that  condition  of  utter  decrepi- 
tude into  which  it  subsequently  sank,  nor  did  it, 
as  yet,  enjoy  the  full  measure  of  that  popular 
contempt  which  subsequently  became  its  portion. 
It  still  had  among  its  members  men  of  ability 
and  force.  Conspicuous  among  them  was  Mad- 
ison, young,  but  prudent,  sagacious  and  acute, 
warped  somewhat  by  his  Virginia  notions,  yet, 
withal,  a  statesman  of  a  high  order,  and  second 
in  talent  to  Hamilton  alone.  There  were  a  few 
others,  such  as  Wilson,  Clymer,  Bland,  Higgin- 
son,  and  Witherspoon,  men  of  reputation,  sense, 
and  ability,  who  stand  out  from  the  crowd ;  but 
most  of  the  members,  although  well-meaning, 
were  wholly  commonplace,  and  totally  unable  to 
deal  with  the  grave  problems  which  confronted 
them.  The  difficulties  of  the  situation  were,  in 
truth,  immense.  It  was  a  time  of  social  and 
political  chaos,  of  broken  promises  and  unful- 
filled hopes.  The  storms  of  war  had  at  least 
filled  the  sails,  but  they  had  now  ceased  to  blow, 


36  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  the  ship  of  state  was  lurching  terribly  in 
the  heavy  sea,  and  threatening  at  every  moment 
to  go  to  pieces.  Hamilton  had  entered  upon  a 
broader  field,  but  he  found  the  same  dishearten- 
ing obstacles  which  he  had  encountered  in  New 
York  increased  in  Congress  thirteen  fold,  and 
to  be  overcome  by  a  legislature  which  was  utterly 
powerless.  Young,  enthusiastic,  and  full  of 
ideas,  he  flung  himself  manfully  into  the  strug- 
gle. He  made  himself  deeply  felt  at  once,  pro- 
duced such  an  impression  that  he  was  talked  of 
as  fitted  for  several  of  the  most  important  offices, 
and  left  the  stamp  of  his  clear  and  powerful 
intellect  on  everything  Congress  attempted  to 
do.  But  it  was  all  in  vain.  His  most  desperate 
efforts  were  fruitless ;  for,  bad  as  things  were, 
the  condition  of  the  times  was  such  that  they 
could  not  get  better  until  they  had  become 
much  worse.  Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at 
the  various  tasks  to  which  he  put  his  hand,  as 
they  come  before  us  inextricably  interwoven  in 
this  year  of  his  public  service.  They  will  serve 
to  show  the  persistent  energy  and  strong  sense 
of  the  man,  and  the  evil  days  on  which  he  fell 
at  the  opening  of  his  career  of  political  action. 

Just  as  Hamilton  was  entering  Congress 
Franklin  was  engaged  in  the  diplomatic  cam- 
paign which  ended  in  such  a  signal  triumph 
for  the  American  envoys.  When  the  issue  of 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  37 

the  negotiations  became  known  in  this  country, 
there  were  plenty  of  men  ready  to  abuse  the 
astute  old  philosopher  and  his  colleagues  for 
violating  their  instructions  in  proceeding  with- 
out the  cooperation  of  France,  and  for  agree- 
ing to  a  secret  Florida  article  with  the  British 
commissioners.  The  natural  hatred  of  England 
had  been  balanced  by  a  trust  in  France  equally 
natural,  but  far  more  unreasonable.  On  this 
principle  Congress,  with  what  amounted  to  pos- 
itive servility,  and  guided  by  the  subtle  Lu- 
zerne,  had  placed  the  negotiation  within  French 
control,  and  this  was  the  command  which  the 
commissioners  had  boldly  and  wisely  disobeyed. 
Hence  the  outcry  from  lovers  of  France  and 
haters  of  England.  Hamilton,  with  his  keen 
insight  and  with  the  liberality  of  mind  which 
assured  him  that  the  envoys  could  judge  bet- 
ter than  he,  was  less  extreme.  Yet  even  he, 
although  soon  to  be  stigmatized  as  "British," 
felt  so  favorably  toward  France,  and  so  hostile 
t<w  England,  that  he  advocated  a  middle  course, 
and  introduced  a  resolution  which,  while  it  sus- 
tained and  praised  the  envoys,  provided,  never- 
theless, for  the  disclosure  of  the  secret  article 
to  the  French  minister.  The  signatures  to  the 
preliminaries  of  the  general  peace  cut  the  con- 
troversy short,  but  even  at  their  worst  our  for- 
eign relations  were  simplicity  itself  compared  to 
•ur  domestic  difficulties. 


38  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Finance  was  the  overwhelming  trouble  which 
laid  bare  the  fatal  vices  of  our  political  system, 
and  it  was  upon  financial  rocks  that  the  rickety 
Confederation  was  dashing  itself  to  pieces.  Our 
affairs  in  the  way  of  debts  and  taxation  were 
entering  upon  their  last  and  worst  phases  at  the 
beginning  of  1783,  when  the  patriotic  Morris 
was  resigning  in  disgust,  and  the  young  pro- 
jector of  national  banks  was  new  in  Congress. 
These  were  of  course  questions  highly  attractive 
to  Hamilton's  genius,  and  therefore  it  was  that 
upon  them  his  most  strenuous  efforts  were  wasted 
while  representing  his  State  at  Philadelphia. 
The  first  object  was  to  obtain  consent  to  the 
grant  of  an  impost  on  imports.  One  State  had 
not  been  heard  from,  but  Rhode  Island  was  the 
only  one  in  active  opposition,  and  to  the  conver- 
sion of  this  obstinate  and  selfish  little  commu- 
nity Hamilton  addressed  himself.  He  it  was 
who  led  the  debate  in  Congress,  who  obtained 
a  committee  to  visit  Ehode  Island  and  argue 
with  their  government,  and  from  his  pen  pro- 
ceeded a  forcible  letter  to  the  governor.  Even 
while  he  was  contending  with  Rhode  Island, 
Virginia  receded  from  the  agreement  and  the 
whole  scheme  fell  through.  Had  it  succeeded, 
it  would,  if  the  States  had  held  to  it,  have  fur- 
nished a  permanent  revenue,  and  hence  Hamil- 
ton's zeal.  Defeated  at  this  point,  Congress 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  39 

fell  back  on  its  old  policy  of  recommending  a 
grant  for  a  term  of  years,  and  against  this 
Hamilton  and  Higginson  voted  with  the  Rhode 
Islanders,  who  opposed  all  forms  of  taxation 
or  debt-paying.  Hamilton  explained  his  course 
in  a  letter  to  Governor  Clinton.  He  was  not 
willing  to  lend  his  support  to  schemes  of  proved 
futility,  or  aid  in  the  self-stultification  of  Con- 
gress, which  progressed  rapidly  enough  in  any 
event.  The  fact  was  that  there  were  very  few 
adherents  of  what  Hamilton  calls  "  Continental 
politics,"  which  favored  strong,  honest  measures 
and  the  funding  of  the  public  debt.  To  this 
the  friends  of  the  States  made  all  possible  op- 
position, and  the  result  was  helpless  stagnation. 
The  government  had  no  resources,  for  the  only 
one  of  any  value,  foreign  loans,  was  nearly 
exhausted.  Hamilton  looked  with  absolute  dis- 
gust upon  this  dogged  refusal  to  pay  the  price 
of  freedom,  this  stupid  indifference  to  honor 
rapidly  degraded  by  the  practical  disregard  of 
all  just  claims,  foreign  and  domestic. 

But  the  blackest  ingratitude,  and  the  dis- 
honesty which  touched  Hamilton  most  nearly, 
was  the  treatment  of  the  army,  for  Congress 
contemplated  disbanding  these  gallant  soldiers 
without  even  the  pretense  of  providing  for  their 
long  arrears  of  pay.  Washington  regarded  with 
horror  such  an  idea,  and  feared  "  most  unhappy 


40  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

disturbances."  Hamilton  had  a  notion  that  the 
army  might  be  used  to  threaten  Congress  suf- 
ficiently to  induce  them  to  make  proper  provi- 
sion for  all  creditors ;  but  Washington  warned 
him  that  the  army  suspected  that  it  was  to 
be  used  for  this  purpose,  merely  to  be  thrown 
aside  afterwards,  and  that  it  was  a  dangerous 
instrument  to  play  with.  Very  soon  this  pre- 
diction of  possible  disaster  from  men  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  and  smarting  with  a  sense  of 
wrong,  came  alarmingly  near  fulfillment,  and 
failed  only  through  the  influence  of  Washing- 
ton himself.  The  army  at  Newburgh  was  in  a 
perilous  condition,  and  the  famous  Newburgh 
addresses  show  what  might  have  happened  if 
Washington  had  chosen  to  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  ill-used  troops.  But  Washington 
not  merely  refrained  from  uttering  the  fatal 
word  of  ambition;  he  threw  himself  into  the 
breach,  checked  the  whole  movement,  and  quelled 
so  far  as  was  possible  the  rising  and  dangerous 
discontent.  We  hardly  appreciate  that  at  New- 
burgh Washington  rendered  one  of  his  greatest 
services.  He  did  not  put  aside  the  crown,  like 
the  Csesar  of  Shakespeare,  but  the  idea  of  sov- 
ereignty never  even  entered  his  thoughts,  never 
for  an  instant  darkened  the  unrivaled  purity 
of  his  utter  unselfishness  and  single-minded- 
ness.  A  word  from  him,  and  the  star  of  the 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  41 

Revolution  might  easily  have  gone  down  in 
military  rebellion  and  military  despotism  com- 
ing suddenly  upon  an  exhausted  and  divided 
country.  But  all  this  Washington  checked, 
and  the  only  outcome  of  the  discontents  was 
a  mutiny  of  some  new  levies  near  Philadelphia. 
Even  these  mutineers,  however,  frightened  the 
feeble  government,  and  produced  a  sharp  con- 
troversy with  the  Pennsylvanian  authorities,  be- 
cause they  failed  to  call  out  the  militia  for 
the  protection  of  Congress,  who  thereupon  em- 
ployed Hamilton's  vigorous  pen  to  castigate  the 
lukewarm  State.  In  all  these  troubles  Hamil- 
ton manfully  took  the  part  of  the  army,  and 
acted  with  the  commander-in-chief.  He  drew 
resolutions  of  thanks  to  Washington,  which 
Congress  readily  adopted,  for  they  were  always 
generous  of  fine  words  and  empty  phrases,  but 
the  army  got  nothing.  They  were  sent  unpaid 
to  their  homes,  taking  their  arms  with  them 
as  tokens  of  the  gratitude  of  their  country. 
Hamilton  urged  the  maintenance  of  a  force 
which  should  furnish  the  basis  for  future  armies 
if  they  were  needed,  but  Congress  cut  it  down 
to  the  lowest  point,  retaining  only  some  eighty 
dangerous  mercenaries  in  the  national  service. 
Defeated  at  all  points,  Hamilton  strove  to  have 
the  debates  made  public  and  the  sessions  open, 
hoping  in  this  way  to  exert  the  pressure  of  pub- 


42  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

lie  opinion,  but  he  was  once  more  flouted  and 
voted  down. 

In  the  summer  of  1783  Hamilton's  term  ex- 
pired, and  he  withdrew  to  private  life  and  to 
the  practice  of  his  profession.  His  congres- 
sional service  had  been  a  complete  failure,  so 
far  as  results  were  concerned.  Even  his  iron 
energy  of  purpose  had  dashed  itself  in  vain 
against  the  popular  demoralization  and  indif- 
ference. The  times  were  not  yet  ripe  for  the 
work  hj3  had  to  do.  But,  although  he  failed 
to  accomplish  anything  for  the  good  of  the 
country,  he  extended  his  own  reputation,  and 
laid  fast  hold  of  a  position  which  was  sure  to 
make  him  a  leader  in  the  future  party  of  re- 
construction. A  letter  from  McHenry,  written 
in  October,  1783,  gives  in  clumsy  phrase  a  very 
exact  idea  of  the  effect  produced  by  Hamilton 
in  Congress.  McHenry  says :  — 

"  The  homilies  you  delivered  in  Congress  are  still 
recollected  with  pleasure.  The  impressions  they 
made  are  in  favor  of  your  integrity ;  and  no  one  but 
believes  you  a  man  of  honor  and  republican  princi- 
ples. Were  you  ten  years  older  and  twenty  thousand 
pounds  richer,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  you  might 
obtain  the  suffrages  of  Congress  for  the  highest  office 
in  their  gift.  You  are  supposed  to  possess  various 
knowledge,  useful,  substantial,  and  ornamental.  Your 
very  grave,  and  your  cautious,  your  men  who  measure 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  43 

others  by  the  standard  of  their  own  creeping  politics, 
think  you  sometimes  intemperate  but  seldom  vision- 
ary, and  that,  were  you  to  pursue  your  object  with 
as  much  cold  perseverance  as  you  do  with  ardor  and 
argument,  you  would  become  irresistible.  In  a  word, 
if  you  could  submit  to  spend  a  whole  life  in  dissect- 
ing a  fly,  you  would  be,  in  their  opinion,  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  the  world.  Bold  designs  ;  measures 
calculated  for  their  rapid  execution ;  a  wisdom  that 
would  convince  from  its  own  weight ;  a  project  that 
would  surprise  the  people  into  greater  happiness  with- 
out giving  them  an  opportunity  to  view  it  and  reject 
it ;  are  not  adapted  to  a  council  composed  of  discord- 
ant elements,  or  a  people  who  have  thirteen  heads, 
each  of  which  pays  superstitious  adorations  to  inferior 
divinities." 

Besides  reputation,  Hamilton  gained  expe- 
rience in  Congress,  and  that  of  a  kind  which 
had  a  powerful  influence  on  his  opinions  of  pol- 
itics and  government.  His  mind  was  naturally 
conservative  and  order-loving,  but  he  was  also 
young  and  enthusiastic,  and  in  the  struggle  with 
England  he  held  very  liberal  views,  was  not 
only  then  as  always  a  champion  of  constitu- 
tional liberty,  but,  in  the  days  when  he  thought 
senates  dangerously  aristocratic,  leaned  strongly 
to  democratic  principles.  These  tendencies,  de- 
veloped by  a  war  against  oppression,  were 
rudely  nipped,  first  by  the  treatment  of  the 
gallant  army  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and 


44  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

still  more  by  his  experience  in  Congress.  The 
natural  impulses  of  his  temperament  once  more 
asserted  themselves  in  all  their  strength.  In 
Congress,  or  rather  in  the  States  which  were 
there  represented,  he  saw  thirteen  pure  repre- 
sentative democracies,  some  of  an  extreme  type. 
The  distinguishing  qualities  of  these  communi- 
ties, and  of  the  central  government  as  well,  were 
at  that  moment  faction,  jealousy,  and  discord, 
infirmity  of  purpose,  feebleness  in  action,  un- 
blushing dishonesty  in  finance,  black  ingrati- 
tude toward  the  army,  and  the  rapid  acquisition 
of  an  ever-growing  contempt  on  the  part  of  the 
rest  of  mankind.  The  main  difficulty  lay  clearly 
in  the  overgrown  rights  of  thirteen  independ- 
ent and  jarring  States.  Next  to  this  came  the 
inevitable  disorganization  and  demoralization 
consequent  upon  revolution,  which  Hamilton, 
saw  plainly  enough,  but  which  he  believed  to  be 
deeply  aggravated  by  too  great  an  extension  of 
democratic  principles.  We  can  hardly  wonder 
that,  constituted  as  he  was,  his  conservatism 
grew  vigorously.  From  this  period  we  may 
date  the  conception  of  that  aristocratic  republic 
and  strong  government,  which  was  to  be  so 
highly  centralized  that  the  obnoxious  States  of 
the  confederacy  would  sink  to  mere  provinces, 
and  which  found  expression  in  the  plan  so  elo- 
quently presented  by  Hamilton  to  the  conven* 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  45 

fcion  of  1787.  By  the  Congress  of  1782-83 
were  planted,  also,  we  may  be  sure,  the  germs 
t)f  that  deep  distrust  of  democracy  and  demo- 
cratic systems  which  attained  so  great  a  growth 
when  it  seemed  to  find  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion such  awful  confirmation.  The  one  year  of 
Congress,  utterly  futile  and  barren  as  it  seemed, 
had  a  deep  effect  upon  Hamilton  ;  that  is,  upon 
a  man  who  was  destined  to  leave  a  profound 
impression  upon  the  history  of  his  country,  and 
who  was  to  become  the  leader  and  type  of  a 
powerful  school  of  political  thought. 

Hamilton's  withdrawal  from  public  office  was 
by  no  means  equivalent  to  separation  from  pub- 
lic affairs.  Both  as  a  lawyer  in  successful  prac- 
tice, and  as  a  writer,  he  was  a  leader  and  mover 
of  opinion  in  New  York.  One  of  the  great 
troubles  of  the  times  was  the  popular  attitude 
toward  the  Tories,  or  loyalists,  and  in  New  York 
the  feeling  was  peculiarly  bitter.  There  was  an 
active  determination  to  take  vengeance  on  all 
who  had  sided  with  the  crown  and  were  now 
helpless,  and  this  was  done  in  utter  violation 
not  only  of  wise  policy,  of  public  morals,  and 
of  the  law  of  nations,  but  also  in  direct  contra- 
vention of  the  treaty  with  England.  Hamilton 
before  leaving  Congress  had  urged  upon  Gov- 
ernor Clinton  the  imperative  duty  of  paying 
British  debts,  as  provided  by  the  treaty,  and  on 


46  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

his  return  to  the  bar  he  found  himself  at 
engaged  in  a  case  growing  out  of  these  hostile 
feelings.  The  legislature  had  passed  an  act, 
known  as  the  "  Trespass  Act,"  giving  a  right  of 
action  to  those  whose  property  had  been  occu- 
pied during  the  war  by  loyalists.  Relying  on 
this  statute,  a  poor  widow  brought  suit  against 
a  rich  loyalist  merchant  who  had  occupied  her 
property  during  the  British  ascendency.  All 
the  sympathy  and  passion  of  the  multitude  were 
with  the  plaintiff,  but  Hamilton,  with  the  fine 
disdain  of  popular  clamor  which  always  char- 
acterized him,  took  the  brief  for  the  defendant. 
In  a  masterly  argument,  elaborate,  eloquent, 
and  high-minded,  he  appealed  to  the  pride  of  the 
court  to  do  justice,  regardless  of  everything  else ; 
he  reviewed  every  point  of  his  opponent's  case  ; 
raised  the  question  from  the  narrow  ground  of  a 
wrongful  statute  and  rested  it  on  public  morals, 
the  laws  of  nations,  and  the  sanctity  of  trea- 
ties. He  gained  his  cause,  the  first  and  one 
of  the  greatest  of  the  forensic  triumphs  which 
gave  him  so  high  a  place  at  the  American  bar, 
and  his  victory  was  the  signal  for  a  burst  of 
legislative  anger.  The  decision  and  the  judges 
were  denounced,  but  Hamilton  had  stemmed  the 
tide,  for  the  time  at  least,  and,  what  was  of  far 
greater  importance,  had  led  the  court  to  vindi- 
cate its  honor  and  sense  of  justice. 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  47 

Other  violent  and  revengeful  acts  against  the 
loyalists  followed,  and  the  disregard  of  treaty 
rights  gave  England  a  readily-taken  excuse  for 
refusing  to  carry  out  her  share  of  the  provisions 
for  indemnity  and  for  the  surrender  of  the  posts. 
Again  Hamilton  came  forward  in  behalf  of  a 
wise,  liberal,  and  true  policy  of  amnesty  an<? 
conciliation.  Snatching  time  from  his  profes- 
sional labors,  he  sent  forth  two  vigorous  and 
widely  read  pamphlets  advocating  all  that  was 
just  and  statesmanlike  in  dealings  with  the  loy- 
alists and  in  observance  of  treaties.  He  re- 
mained unrefuted.  Certain  ones  among  his  ene- 
mies planned  to  challenge  him  successively  until 
he  should  fall  in  a  duel,  but  though  they  were 
ready  to  face  his  pistol  they  could  neither  meet 
nor  answer  his  arguments.  They  had  the  good 
sense  to  abandon  this  murderous  scheme,  and 
no  challenge  was  sent,  but  the  idea  was  a  very 
pretty  compliment  to  Hamilton's  power  as  a 
writer. 

In  other  directions  Hamilton's  ability  and 
activity  were  equally  manifest.  He  was  one  of 
the  founders  and  principal  originators  of  a  state 
bank,  which  was  of  good  service,  and  cut  off 
the  land  bank  scheme  of  Chancellor  Livingston, 
just  then  fascinating  the  very  untrustworthy 
lawgivers  of  the  State.  In  the  formation  of 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  he  took  an  active 


48  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

part,  and  was  one  of  its  best  friends  and  guides 
in  the  tumult  of  attack  with  which  it  was  re- 
ceived in  that  day  of  narrow  views  and  ungrate- 
ful suspicion.  Thus  these  years  slipped  away 
in  busy  usefulness,  but  Hamilton  never  lost 
sight  of  the  necessary  changes  in  the  national 
system,  watching,  waiting,  and  striving,  in  com- 
pany with  the  few  leaders  like  Washington  who 
thought  "  continentally,"  to  create  a  proper  pub- 
lic opinion  and  bring  about  a  successful  national 
movement. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CONSTITUTION 
1786-1789 

WHILE  Hamilton  was  thus  engaged  in  the 
pursuit  of  his  profession,  taking  an  active  part 
in  many  matters  of  general  importance,  and 
laboring  with  a  chosen  few  for  the  education  of 
the  people  in  the  right  direction*,  and  for  the 
establishment  of  a  national  party,  public  affairs 
were  rapidly  going  from  bad  to  worse.  The 
people,  who  had  won  the  admiration  of  Europe 
in  their  conduct  of  the  opposition  to  England 
and  in  the  war  for  independence,  had  now  be- 
come an  object  of  general  contempt,  and  were 
very  nearly  at  the  lowest  stage  of  degradation 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  Divided  among  them- 
selves, with  no  army,  no  navy,  no  cohesion, 
floundering  willfully  and  helplessly  in  a  sea  of 
unpaid  debts  and  broken  promises,  the  States 
of  the  confederacy  were  bankrupt  in  money  and 
reputation  alike.  The  great  powers  looked  on 
with  gratification,  each  seeing  a  possible  victim 
in  America,  and  coveting  a  share  of  the  spoils. 


50  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

England,  beaten  in  battle,  and  determined  on 
revenge  if  not  redress,  held  the  western  posts, 
kept  the  Indians  in  her  control,  and  the  borders 
in  a  state  of  terror  and  ferment,  while  by  hostile 
proclamations  and  discriminating  laws  she  sought 
to  ruin  the  commerce  of  her  former  colonies  and 
embroil  them  still  further  with  each  other.  To 
France  the  Revolution  had  offered  a  splendid 
opportunity  to  gratify  the  passionate  longing  for 
revenge  engendered  by  the  terrible  disasters  in- 
flicted by  Pitt.  The  ministry  and  the  court  of 
Louis  XVI.  watched  American  affairs  closely, 
and  when  the  moment  of  assured  victory  seemed 
to  have  come,  1:hey  gave  us  welcome  aid.  They 
intended  to  strike  a  terrible  blow  at  England, 
and  they  did  it.  The  fine  gentlemen  and  gal- 
lant soldiers  who  came  here  came  for  vengeance. 
If  we  except  Lafayette,  nearly  every  one  in 
France,  from  the  king  and  his  ministers  down, 
were  animated  by  policy  and  revenge.  The  sen- 
timental sympathy  of  fashionable  Paris  would 
have  done  but  little  for  us.  Self-interest  did  a 
great  deal.  Having  helped  us  most  essentially, 
and  having  at  the  same  time  used  us  for  her  own 
purposes,  France  now  aimed  covertly  to  obtain 
control  of  her  former  allies,  and  even  Spain  in- 
sulted and  defied  us.  The  disintegration  of  the 
general  government  was  spreading  to  the  indi- 
vidual States.  The  future  State  of  Kentucky 


THE  CONSTITUTION  51 

was  breaking  off  from  Virginia ;  Wyoming  was 
a  sharp  thorn  in  the  side  of  Pennsylvania ;  New 
York,  at  odds  with  Massachusetts,  was  still 
more  deeply  embroiled  with  the  settlers  of  what 
was  to  be  Vermont,  and  with  New  Hampshire. 
As  the  States  in  their  selfishness  and  blindness 
trampled  on  the  confederacy,  they  began  to  feel 
the  effects  of  this  conduct  in  these  disorders 
within  their  own  limits.  The  finances  of  every 
State,  with  hardly  an  exception,  were  utterly 
debauched.  Fresh  inflations  of  worthless  cur- 
rency were  coupled  with  barbarous  laws  to  en- 
force its  circulation  and  compel  its  acceptance. 
Public  bankruptcy  was  followed  by  personal  and 
private  distress,  and  then  came  stay-laws,  and 
every  sort  of  dishonest  expedient  in  the  so-called 
interest  of  the  debtor  class.  In  every  State, 
too,  were  local  leaders,  like  George  Clinton  and 
John  Hancock,  who  saw  in  a  strong  central  gov- 
ernment a  great  diminution  of  their  own  con- 
sequence. They  preferred  being  first  in  their 
villages  to  being  second  at  Rome,  and  therefore 
headed,  directed,  and  gave  force  to  the  ungov- 
ernable majority,  and  gained  political  prosperity 
from  the  evils  of  the  time.  The  first  sobering 
shock  came  from  Massachusetts.  In  that  State, 
one  of  the  richest  and  strongest  in  the  confeder- 
acy, the  Shays  rebellion  broke  out,  threatening 
courts  and  law  with  extinction.  Hancock,  the 


52  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

popular  hero,  had  prudently  resigned,  and  James 
Bowdoin,  a  man  who  thought  "  continentally," 
was  left  to  crush  the  insurrection,  and  sacrifice 
his  popularity  in  the  service  of  the  State.  The 
whole  affair  was  soon  over,  but  it  had  its  effect. 
The  miserable  fabric  of  the  central  government 
had  tumbled  at  the  stroke,  and  armed  anarchy 
and  rebellion  looked  terribly  unpleasant  when 
men  were  brought  face  to  face  with  them.  They 
did  more  to  arouse  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their 
desperate  condition  than  all  the  brilliant  reason- 
ing of  Hamilton  or  the  great  influence  of  Wash- 
ington. 

From  Massachusetts,  too,  under  the  lead  of 
Bowdoin,  came  the  first  effort  for  a  better  union 
in  the  form  of  instructions  to  her  representatives 
to  urge  the  necessity  of  a  new  convention  upon 
Congress.  But  the  representatives  were  chosen 
by  the  states-rights  party,  for  in  truth  there  was 
at  that  time  no  other,  and  they  smothered  the 
instructions,  explaining  their  course  at  their  lei- 
sure a  twelvemonth  later.  The  first  attempt 
had  failed,  but  had  done  its  share  of  the  work 
of  drawing  public  attention  to  the  true  remedy 
and  its  necessity.  The  successful  movement 
came  from  the  commercial  interests.  Virginia 
and  many  other  States  were  striving  for  a  retal- 
iatory agreement  against  England,  but  nothing 
could  be  effected.  New  York  was  particularly 


THE  CONSTITUTION  53 

selfish,  and  the  neighboring  States  were  begin- 
ning to  open  free  ports  and  discriminate  against 
New  York  and  against  each  other.  These  war- 
ring and  increasing  jealousies  were,  of  course, 
destroying  our  commerce  and  crippling  the  coun- 
try. Virginia,  having  made  a  commercial  con- 
vention with  Maryland,  was  struck  with  the  idea 
that  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  extend  it  to  the 
other  States,  and  in  a  burst  of  liberal  feeling 
passed  resolutions  in  January,  1786,  calling  for 
a  convention  at  Annapolis  to  consider  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  uniform  commercial  system. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  Hamilton's  share  in  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution  begins.  In  this  lim- 
ited and  unpromising  opening  he  saw  a  chance 
to  bring  about  a  convention  with  powers  great 
enough  to  reorganize  the  government  throughout 
and  save  the  sinking  fortunes  of  the  country. 
It  was  but  a  stepping-stone,  and  a  small  and 
slippery  one  at  best,  but,  if  properly  used,  the 
next  stride  might  be  to  a  gathering  capable  of 
extended  and  enduring  work.  With  this  great 
end  in  view,  some  of  his  friends  and  followers 
secured  seats  in  the  legislature ;  and  while  the 
Clintonians  were  magnifying  their  State  and 
their  leader  and  helping  to  plunge  the  wretched 
confederacy  still  deeper  in  the  slough  of  impo- 
tency,  the  little  band  of  Continentalists  "  went 
their  whole  strength  "  on  representation  at  An- 


54  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

napolis,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  appoint- 
ment of  five  commissioners,  of  whom  Hamilton 
was  one.  After  the  fashion  of  that  feeble  and 
demoralized  time,  only  two  commissioners,  Ham- 
ilton and  Benson,  went  to  Annapolis,  where  they 
met  the  representatives  of  no  more  than  four 
other  States,  such  was  the  public  indifference 
to  anything  of  national  importance.  The  little 
meeting  could  do  nothing  for  commerce  or  any- 
thing else,  but  it  was  able  to  issue  an  address 
calling  another  convention  where  the  delegates 
should  come  with  general  powers,  such  as  New 
Jersey  had  given  in  the  present  instance.  This 
address  was  drafted  by  Hamilton,  and  after  it 
had  been  toned  down  to  suit  the  sensibilities 
of  Virginia  and  of  Edmund  Randolph,  governor 
thereof,  it  was  sent  out  to  the  people.  In  simple 
and  forcible  terms  it  set  forth  the  condition  of 
the  country,  the  evils  and  dangers  which  threat- 
ened it,  and  the  grave  need  of  a  complete  reor' 
ganization  of  the  government.  The  little  gather- 
ing at  Annapolis  had  done  its  work,  and  played 
its  part  as  a  stepping-stone.  It  now  remained 
to  make  the  convention  which  was  to  come  a 
success. 

With  this  end  in  view,  Hamilton  gained  an 
election  to  the  legislature  of  New  York,  and  at 
once  assumed  the  lead  of  the  forces  opposed  to 
the  governor.  He  served  on  many  important 


THE  CONSTITUTION  55 

committees,  and  took  an  influential  part  in  all 
the  business  of  the  House.  The  dividing  ques- 
tion was  the  grant  of  a  permanent  revenue  to 
Congress.  Here  Hamilton  had  already  been  at 
work  and  had  written  and  distributed  an  address 
to  the  people,  denouncing  the  refusal  of  New 
York  to  comply  with  the  request  of  Congress,, 
The  preceding  legislature  had  granted  the  reve- 
nue, but  under  conditions  which  nullified  the 
act.  Congress  had  asked  for  an  extra  session  to 
reconsider  this  action,  and  Clinton  had  refused. 
In  January,  1787,  the  new  legislature  was  obliged 
to  meet  the  question.  All  reason  and  a  great 
deal  of  ability  besides  Hamilton's  were  with  the 
general  government,  but  Clinton  had  the  votes. 
After  a  hot  debate,  the  governor  obtained  an 
approval  of  his  course,  and  after  a  still  more 
protracted  struggle,  in  which  Hamilton  shone 
with  the  full  lustre  of  eloquent  argument,  the 
grant  of  the  impost  was  defeated.  Clinton  and 
his  followers  gave  the  finishing  stroke  to  the 
confederacy,  completed  its  wreck,  and  left  the 
country  to  choose  between  anarchy  and  union 
on  a  new  basis.  They  builded  better  than  they 
knew. 

But  while  Hamilton,  with  practical  good  sense, 
was  straining  every  nerve  to  sustain  Congress 
and  give  the  existing  system,  wretched  as  it  was, 
another  chance  for  life,  he  did  not  lose  sight  of 


56  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  grand  object  which  he  had  kept  in  view  for 
years,  and  which  had  brought  him  to  the  New 
York  legislature.  In  the  course  of  the  session 
his  talents  had  been  fully  displayed,  his  personal 
attraction  had  been  deeply  felt,  so  that  despite 
the  hostile  majority  he  carried  through  a  resolu- 
tion for  the  appointment  of  five  delegates  to  the 
coming  convention.  The  Senate  cut  down  the 
number  to  three,  and  defeated  a  second  resolu- 
tion, which  Hamilton  carried  in  the  House,  to 
add  two  more.  The  election  of  delegates  fol- 
lowed, and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice Yates,  John  Lansing,  Jr.,  and  Alexander 
Hamilton.  Yates  and  Lansing  were  uncompro- 
mising Clintonians  and  states-rights  men,  who 
could  be  relied  upon  to  vote  against  any  form 
of  improved  federal  government.  The  fact  of 
their  election  is  the  best  evidence  of  the  odds 
which  Hamilton  had  overcome  in  securing  the 
resolution  for  their  appointment.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  character  of  the  delegates,  Hamilton  had 
won  a  decided  victory  in  the  very  teeth  of  a 
compact  majority  by  forcing  New  York  to  be 
represented  in  the  convention. 

On  the  25th  of  May,  1787,  the  representatives 
of  nine  States  were  assembled  at  Philadelphia, 
and  the  work  of  forming  a  new  Constitution 
began.  It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  enter 
into  the  history  of  that  famous  convention. 


THE  CONSTITUTION  57 

Hamilton's  great  services  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union  and  the  Constitution  were  rendered  be- 
fore and  after  its  meeting.  From  the  day  when 
he  wrote  from  Washington's  camp  the  letter  to 
Duane  setting  forth  the  scheme  of  a  stronger 
government,  he  had  never  ceased  to  labor  for 
that  end.  In  every  legislative  body  within  his 
reach  he  had  striven  for  resolutions  commend- 
ing that  object.  He  it  was  who  had  seized 
with  quick  sagacity  on  the  opening  afforded  at 
Annapolis  and  turned  it  to  such  good  account. 
He  had  labored  incessantly  to  form  public  opin- 
ion by  essays  in  the  newspapers,  by  addresses 
and  speeches,  while  in  private  letters  he  kept 
up  constant  communication  with  those  leaders 
who  thought  as  he  did,  and  sought  always  to 
make  converts  where  his  words  or  his  friendship 
could  have  weight.  By  great  sacrifice  of  time 
and  by  strenuous  exertions  he  had  forced  New 
York  to  appear  at  the  convention,  and  had 
toiled  to  gain  the  approbation  of  Congress  for 
the  new  enterprise.  At  last  his  thought  and 
labor  were  near  fruition.  The  convention  which 
he  had  urged  had  met,  he  was  himself  a  mem- 
ber, and  yet  he  still  stood  alone,  master  only  of 
his  own  personal  influence.  In  the  decision  of 
the  momentous  questions  he  was  helpless,  for 
the  vote  of  New  York  was  in  the  hands  of  his 
enemies  and  sure  to  be  cast  against  him  on 


58  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

every  occasion.  To  have  contested  every  posi» 
tion  with  his  colleagues,  and  at  every  trial  to 
have  voted  against  his  State^  would  only  have 
impaired  his  standing  and  injured  his  cause. 
He  therefore  prudently  refrained  from  the  use- 
less and  unequal  conflict,  took  comparatively 
little  part  in  the  debates  on  details  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  was  absent  a  large  part  of  the 
time  from  the  convention.  In  conversation  with 
the  members  he  could  persuade  and  counsel,  and 
this  he  did ;  but  he  wisely  decided  to  concentrate 
all  his  force  in  debate  in  one  speech.  For  this 
purpose  he  selected  at  the  beginning  of  the  con- 
vention, after  the  various  plans  had  been  sub- 
mitted, the  general  theme  of  a  new  government. 
Completely  master  of  his  subject,  filled  with  a 
deep  conviction  of  the  solemnity  of  the  occa- 
sion, he  delivered  a  speech  occupying  five  or  six 
hours,  described  by  Gouverneur  Morris  as  the 
ablest  and  most  impressive  he  ever  heard,  and 
embodying  all  the  accumulated  reflections  of 
years.  The  brief  remains  to  us,  and  in  that 
bare  outline  can  be  readily  traced  the  range  and 
variety  of  the  speech.  He  spoke  of  the  gravity 
of  the  occasion,  of  the  choice  possible  to  the 
convention ;  he  reviewed  the  whole  science  and 
theory  of  government,  and,  with  an  overflowing 
abundance  of  illustration,  surveyed  the  entire 
domain  of  historic  precedents ;  he  showed  our 


THE  CONSTITUTION  59 

low  condition,  the  evils  of  the  existing  system, 
and  the  resulting  principles  on  which  a  new 
government  should  be  founded.  Delivered  with 
all  Hamilton's  impressive  energy,  glowing  with 
the  ardor  of  the  speaker,  and  expressed  in  lan- 
guage at  once  forcible  and  transparently  clear, 
we  may  well  believe  that  this  speech  had  a  pro- 
found effect. 

In  the  course  of  his  argument  he  read  his  own 
plan  for  the  new  government,  carefully  worked 
out  and  perfected.  This  plan,  which  discloses 
the  essence  of  his  opinions  on  government,  fol- 
lowed in  a  general  way  the  English  system,  as 
did  all  others  presented,  including  the  one  finally 
adopted.  In  after  times  Hamilton  was  severely 
reproached  with  having  said  that  the  British 
government  was  the  "  best  model  in  existence." 
In  1787  this  was  a  mere  truism.  However  much 
the  men  of  that  day  differed,  they  were  all  agreed 
in  despising  and  distrusting  a  priori  constitu- 
tions and  ideally  perfect  governments,  fresh 
from  the  brains  of  visionary  enthusiasts,  such 
as  sprang  up  rankly  in  the  soil  of  the  French 
Revolution.  The  convention  of  1787  was  com- 
posed of  very  able  public  men  of  the  English- 
speaking  race.  They  took  the  system  of  free 
government  with  which  they  had  been  familiar, 
improved  it,  adapted  it  to  the  circumstances 
with  which  they  had  to  deal,  and  put  it  into 


60  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

successful  operation.  Hamilton's  plan,  then, 
like  the  others,  was  on  the  British  model,  and 
it  did  not  differ  essentially  in  details  from  that 
finally  adopted.  But  it  embodied  two  ideas 
which  were  its  cardinal  features,  and  which  went 
to  the  very  heart  of  the  whole  matter.  The 
republic  of  Hamilton  was  to  be  an  aristocratic 
as  distinguished  from  a  democratic  republic,  and 
the  power  of  the  separate  States  was  to  be  effec- 
tually crippled.  The  first  object  was  attained 
by  committing  the  choice  of  the  President  and 
senators,  who  were  to  hold  office  during  good 
behavior,  to  a  class  of  the  community  qualified 
to  vote  by  the  possession  of  a  certain  amount  of 
real  property.  The  second  was  secured  by  giv- 
ing to  the  President  of  the  United  States  the 
appointment  of  the  governors  of  the  various 
States,  who  were  to  have  a  veto  on  all  state 
legislation.  These  provisions,  as  may  be  seen 
at  a  glance,  involved  the  essential  character  of 
the  government,  and  although  purely  republican, 
came  much  nearer  to  the  British  model  than 
any  other  by  their  recognition  of  classes  and  of 
the  political  rights  of  property,  while  by  the 
treatment  of  the  States  a  highly  centralized 
national  government  was  to  supersede  entirely 
the  confederate  form.  In  the  Congress  of  the 
Confederation,  Hamilton  had  seen  that  all  the 
difficulties  arose  from  the  too  great  power  of 


THE  CONSTITUTION  61 

the  States,  and  further,  as  he  believed,  from  the 
democratic  form  of  their  governments.  With 
his  usual  bold  decision,  therefore,  he  struck  at 
the  root  of  the  evils  and  struck  hard.  Many  of 
the  states-rights  men  in  the  convention  dreaded 
too  much  democracy,  when  applied  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  collectively,  but  they  were 
far  from  approving  the  vigorous  ideas  of  Ham- 
ilton. The  majority  of  the  members  undoubt- 
edly favored  a  democratic  system  in  the  Union, 
such  as  they  were  familiar  with  in  their  own 
States.  Even  those  who  believed  with  Hamil- 
ton, that  in  the  best  government  there  should  be 
an  infusion  of  aristocracy,  had  no  disposition  to 
risk  what  was  then  deemed  the  last  chance  for  a 
respectable  union,  on  a  scheme  which  would  be 
hopeless  of  acceptance.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Hamilton,  with  his  keen  perception  of  exist- 
ing facts,  was  perfectly  aware  that  the  leading 
principles  of  his  plan  stood  no  chance  of  adop- 
tion, either  by  the  people  or  the  convention. 
The  aim  of  his  great  speech  and  of  his  draft  of 
a  constitution  was  to  brace  the  minds  of  his 
fellow  members  and  to  stimulate  them  to  taking 
higher  ground  than  the  majority  of  their  con- 
stituents demanded.  In  this  he  succeeded.  His 
eloquent  reasoning,  if  it  did  not  lead  men  to 
his  own  conclusions,  at  least  raised  their  tone, 
enlightened  many  members,  and  brought  them 


62  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

to  a  more  advanced  ground  than  they  were  at 
first  prepared  to  take.  This  was  all  of  great  im- 
portance, and  to  work  for  such  results  was,  in 
Hamilton's  isolated  position,  his  wisest  course. 

His  message  once  delivered,  he  waited  and 
watched,  aiding  quietly  and  effectively  whenever 
he  could,  but  not  attempting  to  thrust  himself 
forward,  fettered  as  he  was  by  the  action  of  his 
own  State.  His  colleagues,  however,  abandoned 
the  convention,  and  at  the  close  Hamilton,  not 
shrinking  from  the  responsibility  of  represent- 
ing alone  a  State  where  opinions  adverse  to 
his  own  prevailed,  once  more  took  part  in  the 
debates  and  affixed  his  name  and  that  of  New 
York  to  the  Constitution.  When  the  end  was 
thus  finally  reached,  he  sprang  once  more  to 
the  front  and  gave  free  rein  to  all  his  activity 
and  zeal.  It  was  in  this  last  decisive  struggle, 
in  securing  the  acceptance  of  the  work  of  the 
convention,  that  Hamilton  rendered  his  greatest 
services  to  the  cause  of  the  Constitution,  —  ser- 
vices more  important  and  more  effective  than 
those  of  any  other  one  man  at  this  last  stage 
of  what  was  in  truth  a  great  political  revolu- 
tion. 

I  have  said  that  Hamilton  had  no  expecta- 
tion of  the  adoption  of  his  own  plan  of  govern- 
ment by  the  convention,  but  he  none  the  less 
thoroughly  believed  in  it.  He  thought  it  bet- 


THE  CONSTITUTION  63 

ter  and  more  enduring  than  the  one  actually 
adopted,  and  he  never  lost  faith  in  its  prin- 
ciples. Indeed,  as  the  distrust  of  democracy 
disclosed  in  his  plan  by  the  proposition  for  an 
Executive  and  Senate  to  be  chosen  by  a  quali- 
fied suffrage  grew  and  strengthened  in  the  con- 
flicts arising  from  the  French  Revolution,  Ham- 
ilton's confidence  in  his  own  theory  deepened, 
and  his  faith  in  the  existing  Constitution  de- 
clined. But  when  the  work  was  complete  at 
Philadelphia,  when  he  had  put  his  name  to  the 
compromise  which  he  had  anticipated,  and  in 
which  he  rejoiced,  he  gave  his  loyal  adherence 
to  the  new  Constitution  and  the  new  system. 
Had  he  been  an  agitator,  or  a  sentimentalist  of 
muddy  morals  and  high  purposes,  a  visionary 
and  an  idealist,  he  would  have  stood  up  and 
howled  against  this  Constitution,  which  was  not 
what  he  wanted,  and  which  fell  so  far  short  of 
his  own  standard.  As  he  was  none  of  these 
things,  but  a  patriotic  man  of  clear  and  prac- 
tical mind,  he  knew  that  the  first  rule  of  success- 
ful and  beneficial  statesmanship  was  not  to  sulk 
because  one  cannot  have  just  what  one  wants, 
but  to  take  the  best  thing  obtainable,  and  sus- 
tain it  to  the  uttermost.  In  the  Constitution, 
however  imperfect  he  might  think  it,  he  saw  a 
vast  improvement  and  unlimited  possibilities, 
and  for  the  adoption  and  successful  working  of 


64  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  Constitution  he  prepared  to  labor  with  all 
his  strength. 

In  the  country  at  large,  and  in  most  of  the 
States,  there  was  a  majority  against  the  Consti- 
tution, but  there  it  was  before  them,  and  the 
people  had  to  make  their  choice  between  that 
and  anarchy.  They  did  not  see  the  alternative 
quite  so  plainly  as  we  do  now,  but  that  they 
felt  it  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  while  a  large 
majority  longed  to  say  "No,"  a  very  narrow 
majority  in  eleven  States  did  say  "  Yes."  The 
choice  thus  forced  upon  the  people  by  the  sub- 
mission of  the  Constitution  did  away  almost 
everywhere  with  the  miserable  indifference 
which  had  become  the  prevailing  sentiment  in 
regard  to  all  things  national.  Parties  began 
to  spring  up,  the  press  teemed  with  contro- 
versial essays  and  letters;  and  more  emphatic 
marks  of  interest,  in  the  shape  of  rioting  and 
burning  in  effigy,  were  not  wanting. 

New  York  was  not  the  most  important  of  the 
States,  either  in  wealth  or  population.  In  these 
respects  she  was  surpassed  by  Virginia,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Pennsylvania,  and  her  adhesion 
to  the  new  scheme  was  considered  much  less 
vital  than  theirs.  But  in  geographical  position, 
capable  as  she  was  of  dividing  New  England 
from  the  Middle  and  Southern  States,  New 
York  had  great  importance,  and  almost  made 


THE  CONSTITUTION  65 

up  in  this  way  what  she  lacked  in  wealth  and 
population.  Her  assent  to  the  new  scheme  thus 
became  of  great  moment,  and  it  was  very  diffi- 
cult to  gain.  In  New  York  party  feeling  had 
always  run  higher  than  elsewhere,  and  it  was 
now  extremely  bitter.  The  opposition  there  to 
the  new  Constitution  was  stronger,  more  com- 
pact, and  better  led,  and  had  a  more  active,, 
powerful,  and  unscrupulous  chief,  than  in  any 
other  State.  In  the  city  of  New  York  a  society 
was  formed  to  resist  the  adoption  of  the  Consti- 
tution by  the  state  convention ;  and  there,  very 
soon  after  its  signature,  a  concerted  attempt 
was  made  in  the  Clintonian  interest  to  write 
down  the  new  scheme  in  a  series  of  connected 
and  well-planned  essays.  This  was  a  gage  of 
battle  which  Hamilton  was  ready  enough  to 
take  up.  He  asked  nothing  better  than  to  de- 
bate the  question  before  the  tribunal  of  public 
opinion.  The  challenge  was  promptly  accepted, 
and  the  reply  came  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
signed  "  Publius,"  written  in  the  cabin  of  a  lit- 
tle vessel  as  Hamilton  was  gliding  quietly  down 
the  tranquil  current  of  the  Hudson  River.  The 
work  thus  begun  extended  over  many  weeks,  a 
new  number  appearing,  as  a  rule,  every  three 
days.  In  the  midst  of  the  most  pressing  avo- 
cations, both  public  and  professional,  Hamilton 
always  found  a  moment  in  which  to  turn  his 


66  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ready  pen  to  the  vindication  of  the  Constitution, 
so  that  the  series  might  never  be  interrupted. 
In  this  great  work  he  was  much  assisted  by 
Madison  and  slightly  by  Jay,  both  of  whom 
brought  ability,  training,  and  sound  sense  to 
the  task.  There  has  been  some  controversy  as 
to  the  proportionate  share  of  these  eminent 
men  in  this  undertaking,  but  the  discussion  is 
of  little  moment.  The  original  conception  was 
Hamilton's,  he  wrote  considerably  more  than 
half  the  numbers,  and  to  posterity  "Publius" 
will  always  be  Hamilton.  This  remarkable 
series  of  essays,  famous  as  "  The  Federalist,"  is 
still  the  best  exposition  of  the  Constitution  apart 
from  judicial  interpretation.  "  The  Federalist," 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  United 
States,  did  more  than  anything  else  that  was 
either  written  or  spoken  to  secure  the  adoption 
of  the  new  scheme ;  but  it  was  something  more 
far-reaching  than  a  timely  and  practical  piece 
of  argument.  The  countless  pamphlets,  essays, 
disquisitions,  and  letters  which  saw  the  light 
at  the  same  time  have  disappeared.  They 
have  been  consigned  to  the  dust-heaps  of  his- 
tory, and  the  waters  of  oblivion  have  rolled 
over  them.  But  "  The  Federalist  "  still  stands. 
No  one  will  deny  that  it  is  dry,  and  that  it  is 
not  calculated  to  amuse  an  idle  hour,  but  the 
"  Oceana,"  the  "  Leviathan,"  the  "  Fragment  on 


THE  CONSTITUTION  67 

Government,"  are  not  easy  reading,  and  yet  they 
are  intellectual  possessions  highly  prized  and 
not  to  be  parted  with.  As  an  exposition  of  the 
meaning  and  purposes  of  the  Constitution,  "  The 
Federalist "  is  now  and  always  will  be  cited  on 
the  bench  and  at  the  bar  by  American  com- 
mentators, and  by  all  writers  on  constitutional 
law.  As  a  treatise  on  the  principles  of  federal 
government  it  still  stands  at  the  head,  and  has 
been  turned  to  as  an  authority  by  the  leading 
minds  of  Germany  intent  on  the  formation  of 
the  Germanic  empire.  In  a  word,  "The  Fed- 
eralist" marks  an  epoch  in  the  development  of 
free  constitutional  government,  in  the  art  of 
confederation,  and  in  political  thought.  On 
these  essays  Hamilton's  fame  as  a  writer  has 
always  rested  and  must  always  rest,  although 
many  of  his  other  political  papers  are  of  equal 
ability  and  force. 

The  immediate  results  of  "  The  Federalist " 
were  so  important  that  its  literary  merits  have 
been  somewhat  overlooked.  These  essays  have, 
in  fact,  become  so  firmly  imbedded  in  our  politi- 
cal history  that  their  place  in  our  literature  has 
been  forgotten.  The  development  of  colonial 
literature  was  rudely  arrested  by  the  troubles 
with  England  and  by  the  conflict  of  the  Revo- 
lution, when  the  intellectual  force  of  the  com- 
munity was  wholly  absorbed  by  politics  and 


68  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

war.  After  the  peace,  constitutional  and  politi- 
cal questions,  and  the  struggle  for  material  pro- 
sperity, engaged  exclusively  the  mental  energies 
of  the  people.  The  result  was  that  we  had  abso- 
lutely no  literature  except  the  literature  of  poli- 
tics. This  presented,  of  course,  a  very  restricted 
field,  and  literature  of  this  sort,  that  is,  literature 
with  an  object  and  as  a  means  to  an  end  instead 
of  one  cultivated  purely  for  its  own  sake,  can 
never  be  of  the  highest  order.  In  this  single 
branch,  however,  the  standard  was  very  high. 
The  genius  of  the  people  in  this  direction  was 
strong  and  keen,  and  their  faculties  had  been 
sharpened  still  further  by  the  long  controversy 
with  the  mother  country,  in  which  the  talent 
displayed  by  the  arguments  of  the  colonists 
upon  constitutional  points  and  the  ability  of  the 
American  state  papers  had  extorted  the  admira- 
tion of  the  leading  minds  of  England.  It  may 
be  safely  said  that  in  dealing  with  questions  of 
politics  and  government  the  people  of  the  United 
States  were  second  to  no  other  nation.  When 
a  man  entered  the  arena  of  political  discussion 
he  not  only  encountered  vigorous  opponents  and 
competitors,  but  he  appealed  to  a  public  whose 
judgment  on  these  particular  subjects  was  highly 
trained.  In  this  literature  the  essays  of  "  The 
Federalist "  take  the  first  place.  They  exhibit 
a  wide  range  of  information  ;  their  reasoning  is 


THE  CONSTITUTION  69 

strong ;  their  style  is  simple,  forcible,  and  clear ; 
they  were  admirably  adapted  to  their  purpose ; 
and  above  all  they  have  endured,  for  they  were  a 
fresh  and  original  contribution  to  human  know- 
ledge and  to  the  best  thought  of  the  time.  The 
conception  of  "  The  Federalist,"  and  the  lion's 
share  of  the  essays,  belong  to  Hamilton,  and 
entitle  him  to  the  first  place  in  the  literature  of 
the  day.  This  is  especially  true  if  we  take  "  The 
Federalist "  in  connection  with  his  other  writ- 
ings in  various  forms  and  at  different  times,  but 
always  upon  kindred  topics.  Hamilton  has  won 
in  this  way  an  important  position  in  the  literary 
history  of  America.  It  may  be  fairly  said  that 
his  work  takes  the  first  rank  in  the  only  litera- 
ture of  the  time.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
he  was  also  a  busy  lawyer,  an  active  politician, 
and  a  great  statesman,  this  is  high  praise,  even 
if  the  literature  in  which  he  was  foremost  was 
nothing  more  than  the  literature  of  politics. 

By  the  publication  of  "  The  Federalist  "  Ham- 
ilton rendered  his  first  preeminent  service  to  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  ;  his  second  was  by 
securing  the  adhesion  of  New  York.  Clinton 
had  failed  to  prevent  the  call  of  a  state  conven- 
tion by  the  legislature,  where  the  Federalists 
prevailed  after  a  sharp  struggle  ;  but  now  that 
the  last  decisive  conflict  was  upon  him,  he 
gathered  all  his  forces  and  prepared  for  battle. 


70  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

He  triumphed  without  serious  trouble  in  the 
election  of  delegates,  and  found  himself  master 
of  forty-six  out  of  sixty-five  votes  when  the  con- 
vention, which  chose  him  to  be  their  president, 
assembled.  The  Clintonian  majority  was  led  by 
Melancton  Smith,  a  keen  debater  and  a  man 
of  ability,  and  by  Yates  and  Lansing,  Hamilton's 
colleagues  at  Philadelphia.  The  slender  minor- 
ity of  nineteen  was  headed  by  Hamilton,  ably 
supported  by  Jay  and  Livingston.  "  Two  thirds 
of  the  convention  and  four  sevenths  of  the  people 
are  against  us,"  wrote  Hamilton,  as  he  surveyed 
the  unpleasing  prospect,  anxious  and  grave, 
but  full  of  courage.  The  outlook  was  in  truth 
disheartening;  but  we  may  well  imagine  that 
Hamilton  felt  instinctively  the  coming  victory, 
that  he  rejoiced  like  the  strong  man  to  run  the 
race,  hopeless  as  it  seemed,  and  that  he  prized 
the  laurels  to  be  won  all  the  more  on  account 
of  the  odds  which  confronted  him  and  the  hard 
fight  which  must  be  fought.  The  first  issue 
was  on  postponement.  The  Clintonians  urged 
delay,  in  order  to  see  the  experiment  tried,  to  be 
guided  by  the  other  States,  to  examine  further 
the  scheme,  and  so  on  with  all  the  excuses  of 
procrastination.  Their  ground  was  shrewdly 
chosen,  but  the  Federalists  met  the  issue  boldly, 
and  when  it  came  to  a  vote,  even  the  devoted 
partisans  of  the  governor  shrank  from  settling 


THE  CONSTITUTION  71 

the  momentous  question  by  evasion,  and  post- 
ponement was  defeated.  Then  the  work  of  the 
Philadelphia  convention  was  taken  up,  sharply 
debated,  and  minutely  scrutinized  in  every  clause 
and  paragraph.  Day  after  day  Hamilton  was 
on  his  feet  upholding  the  cause  of  the  Consti- 
tution. Every  opinion  which  he  had  expressed 
was  turned  and  twisted  into  a  weapon  of  per- 
sonal attack,  and  he  was  constantly  assailed  as  if 
he  and  the  Constitution  were  one.  Defending 
and  explaining  his  own  position  without  weak- 
ening his  cause,  he  debated  every  point  and  met 
his  vigorous  opponents  in  constant  battle.  No 
detail  was  too  small  to  be  dealt  with,  no  flight 
was  too  distant  for  him  to  take.  Filled  with 
his  subject,  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  that 
could  be  said  on  both  sides,  he  reasoned  and 
pleaded,  exhausting  every  resource  of  argument. 
When  the  Constitution  had  been  thus  reviewed, 
it  could  be  seen  how  his  work  had  told.  The 
opposing  forces  faced  each  other  for  some  days 
in  complete  inaction.  The  Clintonians,  despite 
their  majority,  dreaded  to  come  to  a  direct  vote, 
uncertain  as  to  the  precise  effect  of  Hamilton's 
arguments.  The  Federalists,  who  had  been  fight- 
ing for  time  and  knew  that  time  was  working 
with  them,  were  in  no  haste  to  move.  Nine 
States  had  ratified.  The  experiment  would 
surely  be  tried,  and  presently  came  the  news 


72  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

that  Virginia  had  assented.  The  old  policj  of 
evasion  was  once  more  attempted  by  moving  an 
adjournment,  and  was  again  defeated.  Then 
came  a  long  string  of  amendments  and  a  pro- 
posal for  conditional  ratification.  Hamilton  met 
this  in  a  brilliant  speech,  and  Melancton  Smith 
confessed  that  conditional  ratification  was  ab- 
surd. The  end  was  near.  A  short  interval 
elapsed,  and  then  Melancton  Smith  admitted 
that  he  had  been  convinced  by  Hamilton,  and 
that  he  should  vote  for  the  Constitution.  This 
was  the  signal  for  a  break,  and  when  the  vote 
was  taken  the  Constitution  had  a  majority  of 
three  in  its  favor.  Bearing  with  him  these  joy- 
ful tidings,  Hamilton  hastened  to  take  his  seat 
in  Congress,  to  which  he  had  been  elected  some 
months  before  despite  a  vindictive  opposition  on 
the  part  of  the  governor. 

This  New  York  convention  was  an  epoch  in 
Hamilton's  life.  It  so  chanced  that  in  the  years 
which  remained  to  him  he  had  no  opportunity 
after  this  to  take  part  in  a  great  debate.  His 
eloquence  found  vent  repeatedly,  of  course,  at 
the  bar  and  in  public  meetings,  but  never  again 
in  convention  or  in  Congress.  Thus  it  happens 
that  his  legislative  career  closed  when  he  was 
barely  thirty,  and  yet  he  had  attained  the  very 
first  rank  as  a  parliamentary  orator.  This  fact 
is  as  rare  as  it  is  remarkable,  for  high  position 


THE  CONSTITUTION  73 

of  this  sort  is  usually  the  crown  of  a  life  spent 
in  legislative  debate.  Hamilton's  case  is  an 
almost  solitary  instance  of  a  man's  achieving 
this  difficult  reputation  while  the  work  which 
was  to  stamp  him  as  one  of  the  great  legislators 
and  statesmen  of  his  country  still  lay  before 
him.  This  sounds  like  mere  panegyric,  but  a 
little  consideration  shows  that  it  is  only  the 
simple  truth.  Hamilton's  victory  in  securing 
New  York  came  at  a  time  when  the  land  was 
filled  with  debate  and  discussion ;  when  besides 
the  national  convention  at  Philadelphia  there 
were  twelve  state  conventions,  and  when  all  the 
talent  of  the  nation  was  called  into  conspicu- 
ous action.  That  under  such  circumstances  one 
state  convention  should  be  obscured  is  hardly 
to  be  wondered  at,  and  thus  the  magnitude  of 
Hamilton's  success  simply  as  an  achievement 
of  parliamentary  skill  and  eloquence  has  been 
lost  sight  of.  In  New  York  the  difficulties  were 
greater  than  elsewhere.  The  hardest  struggles 
in  other  States  were  in  the  two  great  common- 
wealths of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  In  the 
former,  however,  all  the  ability  of  the  State  was 
banded  together  to  sustain  the  Constitution ;  by 
skillful  tactics,  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Han- 
cock, the  great  leaders  of  the  states-rights  party, 
were  disarmed  and  partially  converted,  so  that 
those  who  confronted  the  Federalists  in  actual 


74  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

conflict  were  very  inferior  men.  In  Virginia 
the  ability  was  pretty  equally  divided  between 
the  contending  parties,  but  the  opposition  was 
much  less  stubborn  and  unreasonable  than  in 
New  York  or  Massachusetts,  while  the  Federal- 
ists had  the  inestimable  advantage  of  Washing- 
ton's enormous  personal  influence.  In  New 
York,  if  we  exclude  Hamilton,  the  preponder- 
ance of  ability  was  with  the  governor,  who  in 
political  strength  and  management  was  a  host 
in  himself.  The  majority  against  the  Constitu- 
tion was  very  large,  carefully  disciplined  and 
counted,  compact,  and  ably  led.  This  major- 
ity Hamilton  overcame  by  open  debate.  He 
changed  votes  by  his  untiring  succession  of  bril- 
liant speeches,  and  when  party  lines  are  drawn 
there  is  nothing  so  rare  as  such  a  feat  in  all  the 
long  records  of  parliamentary  contests.  He  did 
this,  too,  in  the  midst  of  continued  personal 
attacks,  which  he  was  compelled  not  only  to 
ward  off,  but  to  keep  distinct  from  his  cause. 
It  is  true  that  circumstances  worked  with  him, 
but  this  was  part  of  his  campaign ;  and  that  the 
pressure  caused  by  the  accession  of  other  States 
was  not  necessarily  decisive  is  shown  by  the  post- 
ponement of  the  question  in  North  Carolina  and 
the  refusal  to  call  a  convention  in  Khode  Island. 
Any  one  familiar  with  legislative  bodies  and 
with  parliamentary  history  can  appreciate  the 


THE  CONSTITUTION  75 

meaning  and  weight  of  the  confession  wrung 
from  the  leader  of  the  majority,  when  he  admit- 
ted that  he  had  been  convinced  by  Hamilton  on 
a  question  which  had  agitated  the  public  mind 
for  months,  and  on  which  party  feeling  had  run 
high.  Tried  by  the  severest  test,  that  of  win- 
ning votes,  Hamilton's  victory  is  of  the  highest 
rank  in  the  annals  of  modern  oratory. 

That  the  new  States  were  almost  painfully 
deficient  in  nearly  everything  which  gave  re 
finement  to  the  Old  World  civilization  —  in  art, 
in  literature,  in  philosophy,  in  social  splendor — • 
cannot  be  doubted ;  but  in  politics,  constitutions 
of  government,  and  public  law  they  were  more 
advanced  than  any  other  people ;  and  in  capa- 
city and  skill  in  parliamentary  debate  and  polit- 
ical controversy  they  were  as  well  versed  and  as 
keen  as  their  brethren  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. In  this  field,  therefore,  Hamilton  can  be 
measured  by  standards  as  high  as  any  then  in 
existence,  and  can  be  compared  with  any  of  his 
contemporaries  on  either  side  of  the  water.  His 
many  speeches  have  perished,  for  there  were 
no  shorthand  reporters;  he  spoke  extempora- 
neously from  the  stores  of  an  overflowing  mind, 
and  only  meagre  outlines  of  arguments  and 
striking  sentences  condensed  to  the  last  point 
remain.  Yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  analyze  the 
qualities  which  made  Hamilton  a  great  orator. 


76  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Concerning  the  intrinsic  merit  of  what  he  said, 
there  is  no  need  to  go  farther  than  the  essays 
of  "The  Federalist"  to  learn  that  they  were 
profound  expositions  of  the  principles  of  con- 
stitutional law  and  of  the  state  of  public  affairs. 
In  the  same  essays,  or  in  any  other  of  Hamil- 
ton's pamphlets  or  reports,  we  can  also  find 
that  he  set  forth  his  ideas  with  wonderful  clear- 
ness, directness,  and  force,  often  with  intense 
compression,  at  times  with  a  great  variety  of 
illustration.  All  these  attributes  avail  much 
to  clear  men's  minds  of  error  and  to  convince 
them  of  truth.  But  behind  the  lucid  reasoning 
and  the  nervous  expression  there  must  have 
been  something  more,  —  some  qualities  which 
moved  men's  hearts.  Inconceivable  as  it  seems 
with  such  topics,  we  yet  know  from  eye-wit- 
nesses that  Hamilton  moved  his  hearers  to 
tears.  What  was  it  that  could  do  this?  To 
stir  an  indiscriminate  crowd  to  tempests  of  grief 
or  rage  is  not  an  uncommon  power ;  to  move  to 
deep  emotion  a  legislative  body,  in  this  in- 
stance, of  course,  largely  hostile  and  made  up 
of  picked  men,  is  an  extraordinary  feat.  From 
Hamilton's  letters  and  essays,  —  indeed,  from 
everything  he  ever  wrote,  —  we  know  that  he 
was  not  a  man  of  strong  or  fertile  imagination. 
He  would  never  have  pictured  a  coalition  by 
describing  the  junction  of  the  Rhone  and  Saone 


THE  CONSTITUTION  77 

with  a  felicity  of  expression  which  was  startling 
in  its  vivid  exactness,  or  held  his  hearers  breath- 
less as  he  drew  the  fanciful  retrospect  of  the 
aged  Bathurst.  In  a  period  when  tropes,  meta- 
phors, and  images  were  fashionable,  Hamilton 
dealt  but  little  in  them.  With  him,  thoughts 
and  sentences  are  alike  simple,  strong,  and 
straightforward,  and  these  he  used  effectively 
and  convincingly,  not  by  delighting  the  imagi- 
nation and  beguiling  the  fancy,  but  by  commu- 
nicating through  his  words,  voice,  and  manner 
his  own  spirit.  That  he  had  pathos,  sympathy, 
and  depth  of  feeling  can  be  seen  in  the  Andre 
letters,  and  these  qualities  did  him  good  ser- 
vice; but  that  which  led  him  to  victory  was 
the  passionate  energy  of  his  nature,  his  absorp- 
tion in  his  work,  his  contagious  and  persuasive 
enthusiasm.  He  rises  before  us  from  the  past 
small  in  stature,  but  erect  and  graceful,  and  by 
the  art  of  the  chisel  and  the  brush  we  can  see 
the  firm,  strong  jaw,  noble  head,  long,  straight 
nose,  and,  most  effective  of  all,  the  dark,  deep- 
set  eyes.  We  can  easily  imagine  how  he  looked, 
with  his  eyes  glowing  and  flashing  as  he  be- 
came excited,  and  how  his  full,  melodious  voice 
rang  out,  compelling  the  attention  of  all  who 
listened. 

Hamilton's  speeches  in  the  New  York   con- 
vention do  not  live  on  the  lips  of  schoolboys. 


78  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

They  suffered  from  having  been  spoken  in  a 
small  state  convention  at  a  time  when  eleven 
other  similar  assemblies  were  held.  They  had 
none  of  the  splendor  which  came  to  Pitt  and 
Burke  from  their  forum  ;  none  of  the  glitter  of 
the  gorgeous  pageant  which  gathered  in  West- 
minster Hall  to  listen  to  the  wrongs  of  the  Be- 
gums ;  none  of  the  national  lustre  which  encir- 
cled Ames  when  he  shook  Congress  with  dread 
at  the  prospect  of  war  with  England,  or  Clay 
when  he  denounced  the  Essex  junto,  or  Web- 
ster when  he  upheld  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
Yet  if  we  try  Hamilton's  speeches  by  the  se- 
verest tests,  by  the  conversion  he  wrought,  by 
the  sustained  power,  the  readiness,  fertility,  and 
resource  he  displayed,  and  above  all  by  results, 
this  series  of  speeches  in  the  New  York  conven- 
tion deserves  to  rank  with  the  highest  triumphs 
of  modern  parliamentary  oratory.  Such  at  least 
was  the  opinion  of  his  contemporaries,  both 
friends  and  foes.  In  the  grand  procession  by 
which  the  Federalists  of  New  York  celebrated 
their  victory,  the  federal  frigate  was  named  the 
"  Hamilton,"  while  the  opponents  of  the  Consti- 
tution assailed  him  for  using  such  consummate 
art  in  oratory  that  he  blinded,  hoodwinked, 
and  misled  his  hearers,  preventing  their  voting 
in  accordance  with  their  real  convictions,  so 
bewitched  were  they  by  the  magic  of  his  words. 


THE  CONSTITUTION  79 

No  greater  compliment  could  have  been  paid 
him ;  and  when  his  bitterest  enemies  ranked  his 
eloquence  so  highly,  posterity  may  fitly  adjudge 
its  place  to  be  among  the  first. 

The  great  battle  had  been  fought  and  won, 
but  much  remained  to  be  done.  The  demands 
of  New  York  and  Virginia  for  a  new  conven- 
tion to  amend  the  Constitution  must  be  evaded, 
and  officers  of  the  new  government  who  were 
sound  Federalists  must  be  chosen.  Hamilton 
carried  through  Congress  the  ordinance  fixing 
the  dates  and  the  place  for  putting  the  new 
government  in  operation,  and  then  turned  his 
attention  to  New  York.  His  reward  was  defeat 
for  reelection  for  the  unexpired  term  of  the  old 
Congress.  Clinton,  though  beaten,  held  his 
men  together  in  an  extraordinary  way,  and 
with  an  unyielding  grasp.  The  Federalists  con- 
trolled the  Senate,  but  Clinton  had  the  House 
when  the  New  York  legislature  assembled.  The 
result  was  an  obstinate  dead-lock,  and  New 
York  was  unrepresented  in  the  first  electoral 
colleges,  and  had  no  senators  when  the  new 
Congress  met.  The  state  elections  soon  fol- 
lowed, and  Hamilton  flung  himself  heart  and 
soul  into  the  campaign.  Yates  was  nominated 
by  the  Federalists,  as  a  moderate  man  able  to 
draw  votes  from  the  other  side,  and  Hamilton 
supported  him  eagerly  and  eloquently  with  voice 


80  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  pen  in  the  newspapers  and  on  the  platform. 
This  choice  of  a  candidate  was  due  to  Hamilton, 
and  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  he  would 
not  have  done  better  if  he  had  nominated  some 
steady  Federalist.  He  would  certainly  have 
strengthened  his  party,  but  he  was  probably 
led  to  select  Yates  by  the  desire  to  win  at 
all  hazards.  His  hatred  of  Clinton  probably 
blinded  his  judgment,  which,  whenever  it  went 
astray,  was  warped  by  the  energy  of  his  per- 
sonal feelings.  At  all  events,  the  doughty  gov- 
ernor prevailed  once  more,  despite  the  exertions 
of  his  enemies,  but  his  power  was  broken.  His 
majority  was  a  very  narrow  one,  and  the  legis- 
lature was  in  favor  of  the  Constitution.  This 
gave  the  senators  to  the  Federalists,  and  by 
most  desperate  efforts  they  succeeded  in  choos- 
ing four  of  the  six  representatives  in  Congress. 

The  election  of  the  senators  was  marked  by 
one  of  those  errors  into  which  Hamilton  was 
led  on  one  or  two  memorable  occasions  by  his 
imperious  will  and  headstrong  disposition.  Up 
to  this  time  the  Livingstons,  one  of  the  ruling 
families  in  New  York,  had  acted  with  and  given 
powerful  aid  to  the  friends  of  the  Constitution. 
They  cheerfully  conceded  one  senatorship  to 
Schuyler,  but  they  and  others  like  Morgan 
Lewis  desired  the  other,  as  it  is  said,  for  some 
New  York  man  of  their  faction,  and  they  were 


THE  CONSTITUTION  81 

especially  opposed  to  King,  whom  Hamilton 
had  settled  upon  as  Schuyler's  colleague.1  Ru- 
fus  King  was  an  eminent  and  able  man,  but  he 
had  just  come  from  Massachusetts,  and  could 
not  in  the  nature  of  things  have  had  any  fol- 
lowing of  his  own.  Hamilton,  nevertheless,  per- 
sisted, and  King  was  chosen.  The  result  was 
a  rupture  with  the  Livingstons,  which  was  the 
probable  cause  of  the  defeat  of  Schuyler  two 
years  later,  and  of  the  election  of  Burr.  King 
was  no  doubt  an  abler  man  than  any  of  his 
competitors,  but  the  Livingston  alliance  was 
very  important  to  the  Federalists,  and  it  was  a 
blunder  to  throw  it  away.  Hamilton  had,  in 
fact,  no  genius  for  management,  and  his  beset- 
ting danger  was  in  his  desire  to  force  things 
through,  and  in  his  impatience  of  delay  or  of 
concession,  when  dealing  with  other  men.  In 
this  case  his  imprudence  brought  strength  to 
Burr,  and  was  the  beginning  of  Hamilton's 
many  troubles  in  New  York  politics. 

Meanwhile  the  day  had  come,  the  eventful 
4th  of  March,  fixed  for  the  assembling  of  the 
new  Congress.  The  evil  habits  of  the  old  con- 
federacy still  clung  to  national  affairs  to  such 
a  degree  that  a  quorum  of  both  houses  was  not 
obtained  until  April  6.  Then  the  votes  were 
opened  and  counted,  and  George  Washington 

1  Morgan  Lewis  to  Hamilton,  June  24,  1789,  MS.  letter. 


82  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

was  declared  to  be  President  by  a  unanimous 
vote ;  and  John  Adams,  who  had  received  the 
next  highest  number,  obtained  the  Vice-Pre- 
sidency. Washington  and  Adams,  on  being 
informed  of  their  election,  proceeded  by  slow 
stages  to  New  York,  where  they  were  sworn  in 
and  the  government  was  fairly  organized.  The 
great  experiment  was  at  last  on  trial. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  TREASURY   AND   THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY 

ALTHOUGH  early  spring  saw  the  actual  for- 
mation of  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
it  was  not  until  September  2  that  the  act  passed 
establishing  the  Treasury  Department.  All 
eyes  were  turned  to  Hamilton  as  the  man  to  fill 
this  great  office.  Washington  had  already  de- 
cided upon  him,  and  Robert  Morris  had  singled 
him  out  as  the  statesman  suited  above  all  others 
for  the  trying  position  which  he  himself  had 
filled  under  the  confederacy.  Advisers  were  not 
wanting,  tried  friends  and  admirers,  like  Troup 
and  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  warned  Ham- 
ilton of  the  trials  he  was  about  to  encounter, 
and  of  the  thorny  path  he  must  tread.  They 
had  reason  enough  on  their  side.  Despite  his 
politics,  Hamilton,  benefiting  like  other  young 
patriots  by  the  law  excluding  Tories  from  prac- 
tice in  the  courts,  had  raised  himself  to  a  lead- 
ing position  at  the  bar,  and  had  wealth  and 
reputation  within  easy  reach.  All  this  quiet 
and  assured  prosperity  must  be  sacrificed  for  a 
post  beset  with  difficulties,  of  unceasing  toil, 


84  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  with  a  paltry  salary  of  thirty-five  hundred 
dollars  a  year.  There  is,  however,  no  indication 
that  Hamilton  wavered  for  a  moment  in  his 
decision.  He  was  convinced  that  he  could  ren- 
der his  best  service  to  his  country  at  the  head 
of  the  Treasury,  and  he  at  once  accepted  the 
high  office.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise. 
His  time  had  come,  the  great  epoch  of  his  life, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  escape  his  destiny. 
He  was  only  thirty-two  years  old,  in  the  flower 
of  his  age  and  with  the  flush  of  youth  upon  him. 
The  weapons  which  he  had  been  forging  for 
years  hung  at  last  complete  and  glittering  before 
his  eyes,  and  he  was  the  last  man  to  refuse  to 
gird  on  the  sword  and  draw  it  in  the  cause  of 
good  government. 

Ten  days  after  Hamilton's  appointment  Con- 
gress directed  him  to  prepare  a  report  upon 
the  public  credit,  but  this  order,  which  led  to 
the  development  of  his  whole  financial  policy, 
was  only  one  of  the  many  tasks  allotted  to  him. 
It  is  not  a  little  amusing  to  note  how  eagerly 
Congress,  which  had  been  ably  and  honestly 
struggling  with  the  revenue,  with  commerce, 
and  with  a  thousand  details,  fettered  in  all 
things  by  the  awkwardness  inherent  in  a  legis- 
lative body,  turned  for  relief  to  the  new  secre- 
tary. They  knew  Hamilton's  reputation  and  his 
perfect  familiarity  with  theories  of  finance  and 


THE  TREASURY  85 

government,  and  they  seem  to  have  felt  instinc- 
tively that  he  was  a  great  minister  of  state  with 
a  well-defined  policy  for  every  exigency.  In 
the  course  of  a  year  he  was  asked  to  report, 
and  did  report,  with  full  details,  upon  the  rais- 
ing, management,  and  collection  of  the  revenue, 
including  a  scheme  for  revenue  cutters ;  as  to 
estimates  of  income  and  expenditure ;  as  to  the 
temporary  regulation  of  the  chaotic  currency; 
as  to  navigation  laws  and  the  regulation  of  the 
coasting  trade,  after  thorough  consideration  of 
a  heap  of  undigested  statistics ;  as  to  the  post- 
office,  for  which  he  drafted  a  bill;  as  to  the 
purchase  of  West  Point ;  on  the  great  question 
of  public  lands  and  a  uniform  system  of  mana- 
ging them  ;  and  upon  all  claims  against  the  gov- 
ernment. Kapidly  and  effectively  the  secretary 
dealt  with  all  these  matters,  besides  drawing 
up  as  a  voluntary  suggestion  a  scheme  for  a 
judicial  system.  But  in  addition  to  all  this 
multiplicity  of  business  there  were  other  mat- 
ters, like  the  temporary  regulation  of  the  cur- 
rency, requiring  peremptory  settlement.  Money 
had  to  be  found  for  the  immediate  and  press- 
ing wants  of  the  new  government  before  any 
system  had  been  or  could  be  adopted,  and  the 
only  resources  were  the  empty  treasury  and 
broken  credit  of  the  old  confederacy.  By  one 
ingenious  expedient  or  another,  sometimes  by 


80  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

pledging  his  own  credit,  Hamilton  got  together 
what  was  absolutely  needful,  and  without  a  mur- 
mur conquered  these  petty  troubles  at  the  very 
time  when  he  was  elaborating  and  devising  a 
far-reaching  policy.  Then  the  whole  financial 
machine  of  the  Treasury  Department,  and  a  sys- 
tem of  accounting,  demanded  instant  attention. 
These  intricate  problems  were  solved  at  once, 
the  machine  constructed,  and  the  system  of 
accounts  devised  and  put  in  operation ;  and  so 
well  were  these  difficult  tasks  performed  that 
they  still  subsist,  developing  and  growing  with 
the  nation,  but  at  bottom  the  original  arrange- 
ments of  Hamilton.  These  complicated  ques- 
tions, answered  so  rapidly  and  yet  so  accurately 
in  the  first  weeks  of  confusion  incident  to  the 
establishment  of  a  new  government,  show  a 
familiarity  and  preparation  as  well  as  a  readi- 
ness of  mind  of  a  most  unusual  kind.  Yet 
while  Hamilton  was  engaged  in  all  this  bewil- 
dering work,  he  was  evolving  the  great  finan- 
cial policy  at  once  broad,  comprehensive,  and 
minute,  and  after  the  recess  in  January  he  laid 
his  ground  plan  before  Congress  in  his  first 
report  upon  the  public  credit,  a  state  paper 
which  marks  an  era  in  American  history,  and 
by  which  the  massive  corner-stone,  from  which 
the  great  structure  of  the  federal  government 
has  risen,  was  securely  laid. 


THE  TREASURY  87 

It  was  with  this  report  that  Hamilton  entered 
upon  the  most  important  part  of  his  career,  and 
at  the  same  time  upon  the  period  in  which  he 
impressed  his  individuality  strongly  upon  the 
history  and  development  of  the  United  States. 
The  first  report  on  the  public  credit  was  not 
only  the  beginning  of  a  remarkable  financial 
scheme  which  achieved  a  brilliant  practical  suc- 
cess, but  with  its  successors  which  came  quickly 
after  it,  from  the  fertile  mind  at  the  head  of 
the  Treasury,  it  carried  out  a  far-reaching  policy 
which  affected,  as  it  came  to  maturity,  the  char- 
acter of  the  whole  government,  built  up  and 
welded  together  a  powerful  party,  and  founded 
a  school  of  political  thought  which  still  endures 
and  has  always  exercised  a  profound  influence 
on  our  material  growth  and  our  political  and 
constitutional  system.  Up  to  this  time,  great 
and  valuable  as  Hamilton's  services  had  been, 
they  were  simply  those  of  a  man  of  remarkable 
ability,  having  no  peculiar  mark  about  them. 
The  intellect  and  personality  of  Hamilton  have 
not  left  their  stamp  and  superscription  upon  the 
Constitution  as  it  went  from  the  Philadelphia 
convention,  but  upon  the  government,  the  pub- 
lic policy,  the  political  system  which  grew  up 
under  the  Constitution,  they  made  an  indelible 
impression  in  those  early  and  plastic  years,  and 
one  which  has  never  been  effaced.  In  a  word. 


88  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

when  Hamilton  sent  in  his  report  on  the  public 
credit  in  January,  1790,  from  being  a  distin- 
guished man  he  became  also  a  typical  leader, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  an  essential  element 
in  our  history. 

To  attempt  to  give  an  abstract  of  this  report 
would  be  labor  wasted.  With  all  his  lucidity  of 
statement,  Hamilton  was  always  concise,  espe- 
cially in  his  communications  to  Congress,  and 
to  such  a  degree  that  further  condensation  is 
out  of  the  question.  But  to  understand  Ham- 
ilton and  his  influence  as  a  great  factor  at  the 
dawn  of  the  history  of  the  United  States,  it  is 
sufficient  to  lay  bare  the  main  principles  of  his 
report.  In  these  we  can  obtain  the  intent  and 
significance  of  his  policy,  and  then  compare  it 
with  its  results.  After  setting  forth  in  general 
but  striking  terms  the  necessity  of  public  credit, 
not  merely  as  a  means  of  raising  money,  but  as 
an  element  of  national  greatness,  and  after 
dwelling  on  the  need  of  the  most  rigid  honor 
in  all  things  connected  with  financial  dealings, 
Hamilton  states  in  a  few  curt  sentences  the 
objects  to  be  attained.  He  says :  — 

"To  justify  and  preserve  the  confidence  of  the 
most  enlightened  friends  of  good  government ;  to  pro- 
mote the  increasing  respectability  of  the  American 
name ;  to  answer  the  calls  of  justice ;  to  restore  landed 
property  to  its  due  value ;  to  furnish  new  resources 


THE  TREASURY  89 

both  to  agriculture  and  commerce ;  to  cement  'more 
closely  the  union  of  the  States  ;  to  add  to  their  secur- 
ity against  foreign  attack ;  to  establish  public  order 
on  the  basis  of  an  upright  and  liberal  .policy ;  — 
these  are  the  great  and  invaluable  ends  to  be  secured 
by  a  proper  and  adequate  provision,  at  the  present 
period,  for  the  support  of  public  credit." 

I  have  italicized  the  two  sentences  which 
seem  to  me  to  embody  the  most  essential  points 
of  the  whole  policy.  The  cardinal  doctrines  of 
Hamilton,  in  questions  of  politics  and  govern- 
ment, were  strength  and  order.  The  more  inti- 
mate union  of  the  States,  effected  by  a  common 
interest  in  the  solvency  and  maintenance  of 
a  common  government,  was  a  sure  instrument 
to  promote  strength.  This  was  plain  and  is 
plainly  stated,  but  the  general  expression,  "  to 
establish  public  order  on  the  basis  of  an  upright 
and  liberal  policy,"  covers,  whether  intention- 
ally or  not,  a  world  of  meaning,  which  finds 
explanation  in  the  whole  course  of  Hamilton's 
career  and  of  his  political  thought.  Public  or- 
der usually  is  the  condition  precedent  of  sound 
finances.  Here  it  is  made  the  consequence.  By 
the  regulation  of  the  finances,  not  only  the 
strength  of  the  government  was  to  be  increased, 
but  public  order  was  to  be  established.  It  was, 
in  truth,  the  old  idea  which  held  a  leading 
place  in  Hamilton's  youthful  scheme  of  a  bank, 


90  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  building  up  a  strong  party  in  support  of  the 
government.  This  was  not  merely  to  invig- 
orate an  existing  political  party  or  to  evolve  a 
new  one,  although  such  a  result  was  incidental, 
important,  and  expected.  Hamilton's  scheme 
went  farther,  seeking  to  create  a  strong  and,  so 
far  as  was  possible  and  judicious,  a  permanent 
class  all  over  the  country,  without  regard  to  ex- 
isting political  affiliations,  but  bound  to  the 
government  as  a  government,  by  the  strongest 
of  all  ties,  immediate  and  personal  pecuniary 
interest.  The  wisdom  of  this  was  obvious,  when 
the  object  was  to  sustain  a  great  experiment; 
yet  at  the  same  time  Hamilton's  purpose  was 
not  simply  by  the  spread  of  a  popular  loan  to 
unite  a  numerous  body  of  men  in  the  support 
of  the  government,  but  chiefly  and  mainly  to 
bring  to  his  side  a  class  already  in  existence, 
that  which  controlled  the  capital  of  the  country. 
The  full  intent  of  the  policy  was  to  array  pro- 
perty on  the  side  of  the  government.  That 
once  done,  the  experiment,  Hamilton  felt,  would 
succeed,  and  its  powers,  moreover,  might  then 
be  much  extended.  He  had  been  unable  to 
introduce  a  class  influence  into  the  Constitution 
by  limiting  the  suffrage  for  the  President  and 
Senate  with  a  property  qualification,  but  by 
his  financial  policy  he  could  bind  the  existing 
class  of  wealthy  men,  comprising  at  that  day 


THE  TREASURY  91 

the  aristocracy  bequeathed  by  provincial  times 
to  the  new  system,  and  thus,  if  at  all,  assure  to 
the  property  of  the  country  a  powerful  influence 
upon  the  government. 

The  method  by  which  these  great  ends  were 
to  be  reached,  as  well  as  the  others,  hardly 
less  important,  which  are  also  set  forth  in  the 
sentence  quoted  above,  was  by  funding  and  con- 
solidating all  the  debts  of  the  United  States 
incurred  in  the  war  or  growing  out  of  i\i.  The 
most  immediate  practical  gain  which  Hamilton 
promised  himself  in  this  was,  that  the  funds 
would  supply  that  deficiency  of  a  circulating 
medium  under  which  the  country  labored,  and 
this  point  he  argued  at  length  and  with  great 
ability.  He  proposed  several  schemes  for  fund- 
ing, comprising  various  forms  of  annuities  and 
of  payment  in  order  to  attract  all  classes  of 
creditors.  Into  these  financial  details  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enter.  To  fund  the  whole  debt  at 
the  existing  rates  of  interest,  he  believed  to  be 
beyond  the  power  of  the  country  at  that  mo- 
ment ;  and  in  view  of  the  great  improvement  to 
be  effected,  and  the  appreciation  of  the  debt 
which  had  already  taken  place,  he  demanded 
present  concessions  from  the  creditors.  To  use 
a  modern  phrase,  he  offered  long  bonds  at  a  low 
rate  of  interest,  four  per  cent.,  and  short  bonds 
at  six  per  cent.  He  proposed  to  pay  two  thirds 


92  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  the  debt  in  the  new  funds,  to  bear  interest 
at  once,  and  the  remainder  in  land,  or  in  funds 
which  should  bear  the  same  rates  of  interest  at 
some  future  time.  The  propositions  were  hon- 
orable and  practicable,  and  involved  ultimate 
full  payment,  so  that,  to  creditors  who  had  gen- 
erally begun  to  regard  their  loans  as  hopelessly 
lost,  they  must  have  seemed  positively  brilliant. 
Hamilton  further  proposed  a  sinking  fund,  which 
was  to  be  made  up  at  the  outset  from  a  new  loan 
of  ten  millions  placed  in  the  hands  of  commis- 
sioners for  the  purchase  of  certain  classes  of  the 
debt,  and  for  otherwise  facilitating  the  finan- 
cial operation  of  the  government,  and  which 
was  also  to  be  the  receptacle  of  all  savings  and 
surplus,  and  thus  provide  for  the  accumulation 
of  the  means  necessary  to  meet  and  extinguish 
the  debt  as  it  became  due.  This  was  nothing 
more  than  the  ordinary  sinking  fund,  as  it  is 
used  and  understood  at  the  present  day,  not 
only  in  all  civilized  governments,  but  in  innu- 
merable corporations.  It  was  merely  a  means 
to  provide  for  actual  savings  to  be  applied  to 
the  extinction  of  debt.  But  coming  at  a  time 
when  Pitt  was  using  "  sinking  fund  "  as  a  term 
to  conjure  with,  and  by  ingenious  calculations 
of  the  rates  of  interest  was  perfecting  a  juggle 
which  served  to  blind  a  whole  generation  of 
Englishmen,  and  which  actually  led  them  to 


THE  TREASURY  93 

believe  that  debts  could  be  extinguished,  not 
by  payment,  but  by  further  borrowing,  this  ar- 
rangement is  interesting  from  its  business-like 
simplicity  and  sense.  There  was  nothing  of 
Pitt's  ingenuity  about  Hamilton's  plan.  To 
him  the  sinking  fund  was  a  convenient  business 
device;  nothing  more.  He  had  too  keen  a 
mind  to  be  deceived  himself,  and  he  had  no 
wish  to  confuse  and  befool  others.  His  finan- 
cial schemes  were  to  be  truthful  and  genuine, 
if  nothing  else ;  and  he  put  forth  his  scheme  of 
funding  and  sinking,  not  as  the  incantation  of 
an  enchanter,  by  which  debts  could  be  paid  with- 
out saving,  but  as  business-like  arrangements 
by  which  honor  could  be  restored,  honesty  and 
reputation  retrieved,  the  nation  strengthened, 
and  the  debt,  so  long  as  the  necessary  evil  of 
its  existence  endured,  become,  by  taking  on  a 
new  form,  a  blessing  instead  of  a  curse  to  the 
business  interests  and  moral  tone  of  the  whole 
country. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  were  the  objects  at 
which  Hamilton  aimed,  and  the  means  by  which 
he  hoped  to  compass  them.  Nothing  remained 
but  to  determine  the  subject-matter  to  be  dealt 
with;  and  here  came  the  crucial  question  of 
what  constituted  the  debt  of  the  United  States. 
Few  men  questioned  the  value  of  the  purposes 
set  forth  by  Hamilton,  for  on  the  surface,  and 


94  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

in  most  cases  from  any  point  of  view,  they  com. 
mended  themselves  to  the  hearty  support  of 
all  sensible  men.  There  were  few,  too,  who 
objected  to  Hamilton's  mode  of  funding;  al- 
though at  a  later  time  in  his  career,  and  also 
since  it  has  all  passed  into  history,  there  has 
been  some  hostile  criticism  on  this  point,  which  I 
shall  refer  to  again.  But  as  to  what  constituted 
the  debt,  there  were  immediate,  wide,  and  bitter 
differences  of  opinion  resulting  in  the  first  great 
political  struggle  of  the  United  States,  and  lay- 
ing deep  and  solid  foundations  of  party  divi- 
sions. Hamilton  divided  the  debt  into  three 
parts  :  the  foreign  debt,  the  domestic  debt,  and 
the  debts  of  the  States  incurred  in  the  cause  of 
the  Union  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 
All  these  together  amounted  in  round  numbers 
to  above  eighty  millions,  —  hardly  more  than 
Mr.  Sherman  saved  in  a  twelvemonth  in  the  in- 
terest account  of  the  United  States,  but  a  very 
terrible  sum  in  the  year  1790.  Every  one  was 
agreed  about  the  foreign  debt;  every  one  was 
likewise  agreed  as  to  paying  the  domestic  debt, 
but  there  were  wide  differences  as  to  how  and 
to  whom  this  latter  payment  should  be  made. 
These  two  classes  covered  about  fifty-four  mil- 
lions of  the  debt ;  and  then  came  the  state 
debts,  amounting  to  twenty-five  millions,  very 
unevenly  distributed,  bristling  with  opposing 


THE  TREASURY  95 

interests,  the  great  bone  of  contention,  and  a 
subject  of  long  and  sore  conflict.  Thus  the 
work  was  mapped  out,  and  Hamilton  concluded 
his  report  with  estimates  of  ways  and  means,  a 
scheme  for  raising  revenue  by  duties  on  teas, 
wines,  and  spirits,  and  in  the  background  a 
plan  for  an  excise. 

Before  discussing  the  fate  of  this  great  report 
and  its  momentous  political  results,  it  is  best  to 
review  briefly,  the  other  reports  which  followed 
close  upon  it,  and  were  in  reality  parts  of  one 
comprehensive  scheme.  In  this  way  the  whole 
broad  financial  policy  of  Hamilton  comes  into 
view,  and  all  the  causes  being  thus  understood 
and  grouped  together,  it  becomes  far  easier  to 
appreciate  the  effects  upon  the  country  and 
upon  its  history. 

The  assumption  of  the  state  debts  made  an 
increase  of  revenue  absolutely  necessary,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  year  1790  Hamilton  took  the 
next  step  in  perfecting  his  policy  by  sending  to 
Congress  his  second  report  on  the  public  credit, 
urging  the  establishment  of  an  excise  which  he 
had  already  suggested,  but  which  had  been  laid 
aside.  Some  additions  he  showed  could  be  made 
to  the  duties  imposed,  but  these  were  insufficient, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  raise  revenue  else- 
where. Hamilton's  general  theory  was  to  have 
as  little  direct  taxation  as  possible,  and  to  raise 


96  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

as  much  revenue  from  articles  of  luxury  as  was 
consistent  with  successful  collection.  Having 
carried  the  duties  on  imports  as  high  as  he  felt 
they  would  bear,  he  turned  naturally  to  the  do- 
mestic manufacture  of  spirits  as  the  best  and 
most  proper  resource.  No  one  now  will  ques- 
tion that  by  all  the  best  principles  of  political 
economy  Hamilton  was  right  in  his  choice,  and 
that  he  selected  the  most  appropriate  subject  for 
taxation.  The  revenue  being  essential,  this  was 
the  least  burdensome  way  to  raise  it,  and  the  sub- 
ject was  one  which  in  its  nature  should  always 
be  taxed  before  anything  else,  and  as  heavily  as 
it  will  bear.  On  economic  principles,  the  ex- 
cise on  spirits  suggested  by  Hamilton  requires 
neither  explanation  nor  defense.  The  real  diffi- 
culty was  political,  not  economical.  It  was  true 
that  excises  had  been  laid  and  collected  by  sev- 
eral of  the  States  without  objection.  Hamilton 
in  fact  cited  these  precedents,  but  to  the  popular 
mind  they  were  not  precedents  at  all,  for  the 
people  did  not  try  taxation  by  the  States  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  which  they  applied  in  judg- 
ing of  taxation  by  the  general  government.  An 
excise  laid  by  the  States  was  like  all  other  taxes ; 
an  excise  laid  by  the  general  government  met  in 
the  popular  feeling  the  famous  definition  given 
to  it  by  Dr.  Johnson.  The  attempt  to  raise 
an  internal  revenue  had  led  to  the  Revolution. 


THE  TREASURY  97 

The  government  of  England  was  external,  and 
the  consequent  hatred  of  government  of  that 
description,  combined  with  states-rights,  had 
proved  the  ruin  of  the  Confederation,  and  was 
the  greatest  menace  to  the  new  Union.  The 
old  confederate  government  had  laid  or  had 
attempted  to  lay  duties  ;  the  new  government 
was  formed  for  that  purpose,  and  to  the  customs 
which  everybody  expected  there  was  no  objec- 
tion. But  although  the  right  of  the  central  gov- 
ernment under  the  Constitution  to  lay  an  excise 
was  perfectly  clear,  it  seemed  to  come  from  an 
external  government ;  it  was  new  and  unex- 
pected, and  was  calculated  to  rekindle  the  slum- 
bering animosity  against  anything  resembling 
external  power,  and  to  revive  all  the  old  jealousy 
of  the  states-rights  party.  All  this  Hamilton 
saw  plainly  enough.  He  endeavored  to  disarm 
opposition  by  a  careful  diminution  of  the  hated 
powers  of  the  officers  of  the  excise,  taking  from 
them  their  usual  summary  jurisdiction  and  care- 
fully limiting  their  right  of  search.  But  if  he 
was  cautious,  he  was  also  determined.  Revenue 
was  necessary,  and  an  excise  on  spirits  was  the 
best  resource  from  an  economical  point  of  view. 
Moreover,  the  secretary  was  bent  on  vindicating 
the  right  of  the  government  to  collect  an  inter- 
nal revenue.  It  was  an  important  assertion  of 
power,  and  one  which  ought  to  be  at  the  com- 


98  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

inand  of  the  government,  and  which  if  once  car- 
ried into  successful  practice  would  be  another 
element  of  strength.  It  was  part  of  the  general 
scheme,  economical  and  political ;  it  was  a  bold 
and  perhaps  a  perilous  move  leading  to  grave 
consequences,  but  Hamilton  made  it  unflinch- 
ingly, and  then  turned  all  his  energies  to  secur- 
ing its  successful  operation. 

The  day  after  that  which  gave  date  to  the  ex- 
cise report  saw  the  report  on  the  national  bank 
transmitted  to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives. 
This  report  embodied  in  an  elaborated  and  per- 
fected form  the  fruit  of  Hamilton's  earliest 
meditations  on  finance  in  the  dark  days  of  the 
war.  In  a  national  bank  he  then  saw  the  surest 
staff  to  aid  the  tottering  steps  of  the  young  and 
struggling  republic  ;  and  now,  in  the  plenitude 
of  his  power  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury  and 
of  a  vigorous  party,  he  turned  to  it  as  a  funda- 
mental element  of  a  broad  and  national  financial 
policy.  The  report  was  an  elaborate  essay  on 
national  banks  with  a  full  display  of  their  ad- 
vantages, forcible  replies  to  all  the  anticipated 
and  usual  objections,  and  a  clear  but  detailed 
plan  of  the  bank  which  the  secretary  wished 
Congress  to  establish.  The  late  Earl  of  Bea- 
consfield  once  announced  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  educate  his  party;  and  in  a  similar 
fashion  Hamilton  began  his  report  by  confessing 


THE  TREASURY  99 

that  he  wished  to  educate  the  public,  and  that 
this  must  be  his  excuse  for  such  a  lengthy  pre- 
sentation of  a  subject  so  simple  and  so  familiar 
to  the  "  superior  information  "  of  the  Congress 
he  addressed.  Putting  ourselves,  in  the  wisdom 
of  our  day  and  generation,  on  the  same  plane 
as  that  which  Hamilton's  friends  in  Congress 
occupied  a  century  ago,  we  can  lay  aside  the 
educational  details  and  arguments  on  banks  and 
banking.  These  same  details  and  arguments  are 
admirably  arranged  and  most  lucidly  expressed ; 
they  were  full  of  instruction  then  ;  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  they  might  be  of  value  in  that  way 
even  to  the  present  enlightened  age;  but  still 
they  are  at  bottom  argumentative  and  instruc- 
tive, and  are  far  from  easy  reading.  They  do 
not  help  us  particularly  to  appreciate  the  char- 
acter, influence,  and  meaning  in  history  of  the 
man  who  wrote  them  down,  so  we  may  fairly 
dispense  with  them  here,  and  confine  ourselves 
to  the  great  principles  of  the  report  as  an  essen- 
tial part  of  a  broad  general  scheme. 

The  plan  of  the  bank  was  a  good  one,  prac- 
tical and  successful ;  but  that,  too,  is  not  of 
importance  here.  The  bank  was  to  have  the 
support  of  the  government,  and  the  government 
was  to  have  the  use  of  the  funds,  and  to  a  cer^ 
tain  extent  and  in  a  last  resort  the  control  of  the 
bank.  The  objects  to  be  attained  were  in  the 


100  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

main  the  same  as  those  aimed  at  by  the  funding 
system.  The  economical  problem  which  con- 
fronted the  United  States  was  how  to  develop 
their  vast  material  resources.  The  difficulty  lay 
in  injured  credit,  both  public  and  private,  in 
lack  of  capital  and  circulating  medium,  and  in 
the  almost  complete  deficiency  of  the  financial 
machinery  necessary  to  the  conduct  of  domestic 
trade  and  foreign  commerce.  In  a  national  bank 
Hamilton  perceived  the  means  of  restoring  gen- 
eral confidence,  so  important  to  large  and  remu- 
nerative business  transactions.  In  the  issue  of 
bank  notes  he  saw  a  large  addition  to  the  cir- 
culating medium  of  the  country,  and  a  great 
expansion  of  credit.  These  notes  would  have 
all  the  strength  imparted  by  the  close  alliance 
between  the  bank  and  the  government,  without 
the  dangerous  qualities  inherent  in  irredeemable 
government  paper.  Facilities  for  exchange  and 
for  the  transaction  of  business  throughout  the 
States,  not  merely  for  the  government  in  the 
collection  of  taxes  and  in  all  its  other  dealings, 
but  for  individuals  everywhere,  would  be  pro- 
moted to  a  degree  which  we  can  hardly  conceive 
without  picturing  to  ourselves  a  community  al- 
most utterly  destitute  of  all  the  appliances  by 
which  the  vast  concerns  of  the  business  world 
are  now  kept  in  daily  motion.  All  these  great 
benefits  flowing  from  the  national  bank  were 


THE  TREASURY  101 

correct  in  theory,  and  proved  equally  so  in  prac- 
tice. They  were  all  sought  by  Hamilton  for  the 
great  purpose  of  advancing  the  development  of 
the  resources  of  the  country,  which,  economically 
speaking,  was  the  pole-star  of  his  whole  financial 
policy.  They  were  intended  to  facilitate  trade, 
encourage  enterprise,  enhance  the  value  of  land, 
and  stimulate  at  once  and  as  strongly  as  possible 
both  agriculture  and  commerce. 

In  the  bank,  too,  there  was  also  a  valuable 
engine  for  the  performance  of  the  financial  work 
of  the  Treasury,  and  a  fresh  source  of  power  and 
strength  to  the  government.  In  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  funds,  the  bank  would  create  a  class, 
or  call  forth  one  already  in  existence  in  support 
of  the  government.  The  stockholders  of  the 
bank  would  be  even  more  united  and  more  ac- 
tive than  the  holders  of  the  funds,  because  they 
would  have  more  to  gain.  Then,  too,  in  addition 
to  this  powerful  body  of  allies,  the  government 
would  find  in  the  resources  of  the  bank  a  great 
assistance  in  time  of  distress,  and  a  uniform  sys- 
tem of  finance  and  of  bank  notes  everywhere 
receivable  would  replace  the  chaos  of  thirteen 
jarring  States,  each  with  its  own  banks  issuing 
notes  which  were  universally  distrusted  beyond 
their  own  borders.  The  power  and  purposes 
of  a  national  bank  were  seen  as  plainly  by 
Hamilton's  opponents  as  by  his  friends,  but  its 


102  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

immense  economical  value  and  necessary  useful- 
ness prevailed.  The  policy  of  a  national  bank 
thus  founded  by  Hamilton  has  never  been  per- 
manently laid  aside.  When  the  charter  of  the 
first  expired,  the  very  party,  and  some  of  the 
very  men  even  who  had  most  fiercely  resisted  it, 
established  another.  A  few  years  later,  and  the 
president  of  the  national  bank  struggled  with 
the  President  of  the  United  States  on  not  un- 
equal terms,  a  curious  verification  of  the  power 
which  Hamilton  believed  he  should  find  in  a 
bank,  and  of  the  possible  danger  of  that  power 
if  arrayed  against  the  government,  as  predicted 
by  Hamilton's  opponents.  Then  came  an  inter- 
regnum of  state  banks,  and  again  difficulty  and 
distress  led  to  a  return  to  Hamilton's  policy. 
The  system  of  national  banks  has  replaced  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  and  its  branches, 
doing  away  with  the  danger  of  extreme  central- 
ization in  a  single  institution,  which  would  be  at 
the  present  time  of  perilous  magnitude.  But 
though  the  form  has  been  thus  wisely  changed, 
the  policy  of  national  banking  and  the  gov- 
erning principles  are  still  those  laid  down  by 
Hamilton,  and  we  live  now  under  the  sound, 
wise  policy  in  this  respect  which  he  devised  and 
carried  through  nearly  a  century  ago. 

But  there  is  another  side  still  to  Hamilton's 
plan  of   a  national  bank,  which  overshadows 


THE  TREASURY  103 

all  its  other  purposes  and  results,  important 
and  far-reaching  as  they  were.  This  was  the 
constitutional  side.  The  opposition  denied  the 
right  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  to 
erect  a  national  bank,  and  Hamilton  evoked 
the  implied  powers  of  the  Constitution  to  bring 
him  victory.  The  struggle  went  into  the  cab- 
inet, and  Hamilton's  argument  not  only  satis- 
fied Washington,  but  has  carried  conviction  to 
a  majority  of  the  American  people  ever  since. 
This  argument  on  the  constitutionality  of  the 
national  bank,  as  a  piece  of  legal  reasoning, 
is  the  most  important  which  Hamilton  ever 
produced,  not  only  in  itself  but  because  it  can 
be  tried  by  the  highest  possible  standard.  In 
McCulloch  v.  Maryland,  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
went  over  precisely  the  same  ground  on  the 
same  question,  deciding  the  point,  as  is  well 
known,  in  Hamilton's  favor.  There  are  few 
arguments  which  will  bear  to  be  placed  side  by 
side  with  those  of  Marshall,  but  Hamilton's 
stands  the  comparison  without  suffering  in  the 
trial.  The  able  and  luminous  decision  of  the 
chief  justice  adds  nothing  to  the  argument  of 
the  secretary  and  takes  nothing  from  it,  nor  is 
the  work  of  the  latter  inferior  to  the  opinion 
of  the  judge  in  clearness  and  force  of  expres- 
sion. I  am  far  from  meaning  to  imply  by  this 
that  Hamilton  was  as  a  lawyer  the  equal  of 


104  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Marshall,  who  stands  at  the  head  of  all  lawyers, 
especially  on  constitutional  questions.  But  it 
may  be  truly  said  that  a  man  who  could  in 
much  haste  produce  an  argument  which  can  be 
placed  beside  an  opinion  of  the  great  chief 
justice,  involving  the  very  same  question,  is 
fairly  entitled  to  stand  in  the  front  rank  of 
lawyers,  and  can  be  credited  with  the  possession 
of  legal  talents  of  the  highest  order. 

Interesting  as  this  comparison  is  to  the  stu- 
dent of  Hamilton's  life  and  character,  the  his- 
torical weight  and  meaning  of  the  argument 
lies  in  the  calling  into  vigorous  life  the  implied 
powers  of  the  Constitution.  This  great  doc- 
trine, embodying  the  principle  of  liberal  con- 
struction, was  the  most  formidable  weapon  in  the 
armory  of  the  Constitution ;  and  when  Hamil- 
ton grasped  it  he  knew,  and  his  opponents  felt, 
that  here  was  something  capable  of  conferring 
on  the  federal  government  powers  of  almost 
any  extent.  Beside  the  doctrine  of  the  implied 
powers,  all  the  other  schemes  of  Hamilton  to 
give  strength  to  the  new  system,  far-reaching 
and  striking  as  they  were,  sank  into  insignifi- 
cance. Hamilton  did  not  shrink.  Strength, 
order,  and  national  force  were  his  objects,  and 
in  the  implied  powers  he  could  find  everything 
that  he  needed,  or  that  the  government  could 
need,  provided  his  progress  was  not  arrested. 


THE  TREASURY  105 

On  the  doctrine  thus  boldly  laid  down  as  to  the 
bank,  great  parties  have  arisen  and  divided 
ever  since,  and  a  large  part  of  our  history,  con- 
stitutional and  political,  has  turned  on  the 
implied  powers  first  seized  by  Hamilton.  The 
growth  of  nationality  and  the  conversion  of  the 
agreement  of  thirteen  States  into  the  charter 
of  a  nation  have  been  largely  the  development 
of  the  implied  powers.  This  is  the  central 
point  of  Hamilton's  whole  policy,  and  in  his 
bold  declaration  of  the  implied  powers  of  the 
Constitution  he  laid  bare  his  one  predominant 
purpose  of  building  up  a  powerful  national  gov- 
ernment. 

In  a  little  more  than  a  month  after  the  trans- 
mission of  the  report  on  the  national  bank,  the 
indefatigable  secretary  of  the  treasury  sent  to 
Congress  his  report  on  the  establishment  of  the 
mint.  This  was  of  course  an  integral  part  of 
his  financial  policy ;  but  it  was  purely  financial, 
and  had  none  of  the  wide  political  and  constitu- 
tional importance  which  attaches  to  the  other 
reports.  This  essay  on  coinage,  for  such  it 
really  was,  shows  all  Hamilton's  thoroughness 
of  treatment  and  clearness  of  thought  and 
expression,  applied  to  an  intricate  and  difficult 
series  of  questions.  The  most  interesting  fea- 
ture of  the  report  to  us  lies  in  Hamilton's  advo- 
cacy of  a  double  standard.  His  argument  was 


106  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

moderate  in  tone ;  he  fully  admitted  the  neces- 
sity of  conforming  in  this  matter  to  the  prac- 
tice of  other  countries  and  of  the  commercial 
world,  and  especially  of  England,  with  whom 
we  had  our  largest  dealings.  He  also  frankly 
admitted  the  difficulties  attendant  on  maintain- 
ing a  proper  ratio  between  the  metals,  so  that 
one  by  being  overvalued  should  not  drive  the 
other  out.  But  after  all  deductions,  and  with 
full  allowance  for  all  possible  risks,  he  comes 
clearly  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  long  run 
greater  steadiness  is  acquired  by  maintaining  a 
double  rather  than  a  single  standard,  and  that 
a  better  circulating  medium,  larger,  more  con- 
venient, and  less  subject  to  dangerous  fluctua- 
tions, is  thus  attained.  This  principle  was 
adopted  at  the  time,  and  with  a  short  interval 
has  been  the  policy  of  our  government  ever 
since.  We  now  depart  from  the  views  ex- 
pressed by  Hamilton  with  reference  to  a  double 
standard  by  disregarding  our  relations  on  this 
point  with  our  principal  customers  and  by 
grossly  overvaluing  the  inferior  metal. 

In  discussing  the  subject  of  coinage  Hamil- 
ton advised  the  decimal  system,  with  the  dollar 
as  a  unit.  He  examined  minutely  the  intri- 
cate details  of  alloy,  gave  a  full  plan  for  the 
working  force  and  organization  of  a  mint,  and 
explained  a  careful  scheme  for  coining  and  for 


THE  TREASURY  107 

the  methods  and  charges  of  the  government  in 
this  work.  The  report  as  a  whole  is  of  interest 
merely  as  showing  Hamilton's  knowledge  and 
industry  in  every  branch  of  finance,  and  the 
general  soundness  of  his  views,  which  in  this  in- 
stance have  been  in  the  main  closely  followed 
ever  since. 

Some  months  later,  at  the  close  of  this  same 
year  1791,  Hamilton  put  the  finishing  touch  to 
his  financial  policy  by  his  report  on  manufac- 
tures, the  most  elaborate,  and  economically  the 
most  important,  of  all  his  reports,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  far-reaching  politically.  It 
rested  on  the  implied  powers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  was  intended  to  do  more  than  any- 
thing else  toward  the  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  country,  the  purpose  nearest 
Hamilton's  heart,  and  toward  rendering  the 
nation  as  strong  and  independent  materially 
as  in  all  other  ways. 

That  Hamilton  looked  for  immediate  results 
from  his  report  on  manufactures  may  well  be 
doubted.  He  certainly  knew  that  progress 
would  be  deliberate  and  growth  slow  in  this 
direction.  But  he  wished  to  sow  the  seed,  to 
prepare  the  way  and  lay  down  the  lines  to  be 
followed,  and  so  much  he  did.  From  Hamil- 
ton's report  on  manufactures  have  sprung  the 
protectionist  policy  and  the  so-called  "Ameri- 


108  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

can"  system  of  Clay.  Hamilton  was  in  his 
grave  many  years  before  protection  was  seri- 
ously taken  up  as  a  well-defined  system,  but 
when  it  came,  stimulated,  it  is  true,  by  the  mis- 
taken acts  of  his  great  opponent,  it  came  as 
he  had  foreseen  it  would  come,  and  it  suc- 
ceeded as  he  had  wished  it  to  succeed.  Upon 
the  principles  then  laid  down,  and  upon  the  pol- 
icy then  boldly  sketched  with  a  master  hand, 
parties  have  divided  and  a  great  economical 
system  has  been  built  up.  Even  after  a  hasty 
examination,  we  can  see  in  this  paper,  bet- 
ter than  anywhere  else,  the  grasp,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  long  reach,  of  Hamilton's  mind 
and  thought.  He  was  familiar  with  the  science 
of  political  economy,  then  in  its  infancy,  and 
with  the  writings  of  Adam  Smith,  the  founder 
of  that  science,  whom  he  admired  and  quoted, 
but  whom  he  did  not  follow.  The  first  pages 
of  the  report  are  occupied  with  a  brief  discus- 
sion of  the  comparative  value  of  agriculture  and 
commerce.  The  arguments  of  those  who  give 
unquestioned  preference  to  the  former  are  met 
and  refuted,  and  the  conclusion  is  that  these 
two  pursuits  are  at  least  of  equal  value,  that 
they  serve  each  other,  and  that  it  is  best  that 
both  should  flourish.  He  then  sets  forth  under 
seven  heads  the  advantages  to  be  gained  from 
the  establishment  of  manufactures,  —  division  of 


THE  TREASURY  109 

labor,  extension  of  the  use  of  machinery,  addi- 
tional employment  to  classes  of  the  community 
not  ordinarily  engaged  in  business,  promotion 
of  immigration,  greater  scope  for  the  diversity 
of  talents  and  disposition  which  discriminate 
men  from  each  other,  a  more  ample  and  various 
field  for  enterprise,  and  the  creation  in  some 
instances  of  a  new,  and  in  all  of  a  more  certain 
and  steady,  demand  for  the  surplus  products  of 
the  soil.  The  first  objection  is  that  a  state 
thinly  settled,  with  unbounded  opportunities  for 
agriculture,  and  able  to  buy  manufactured  arti- 
cles from  other  nations,  attains  in  this  natural 
way  the  best  and  most  profitable  division  of  la- 
bor. To  this  Hamilton  replies  :  "  If  the  system 
of  perfect  liberty  to  industry  and  commerce 
were  the  prevailing  system  of  nations,  the  argu- 
ments which  dissuade  a  country  in  the  predica- 
ment of  the  United  States  from  the  zealous 
pursuit  of  manufactures  would  doubtless  have 
great  force.  .  .  .  But  the  system  which  has 
been  mentioned  is  far  from  characterizing  the 
general  policy  of  nations.  The  prevalent  one 
has  been  regulated  by  an  opposite  spirit.  .  .  . 
In  such  a  position  of  things  the  United  States 
cannot  exchange  with  Europe  on  equal  terms. 
.  .  .  Remarks  of  this  kind  are  not  made  in  the 
spirit  of  complaint.  ...  It  is  for  the  United 
States  to  consider  by  what  means  they  can 


110  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

render  themselves  least  dependent  on  the  com- 
binations, right  or  wrong,  of  foreign  policy." 

The  objection  that  industry  if  left  to  itself 
will  find  out  the  most  useful  and  profitable  em- 
ployment, and  therefore  should  not  be  forced 
by  government,  he  meets  by  pointing  out  the 
strong  influence  of  habit  and  of  the  spirit  of 
imitation,  including  "  the  fear  of  want  of  success 
in  untried  enterprises,  the  intrinsic  difficulties 
of  first  essays,  and  the  bounties,  premiums,  and 
other  artificial  encouragements  with  which  for- 
eign nations  second  the  exertions  of  their  own 
citizens."  He  discusses  this  at  length,  taking 
substantially  the  same  ground  as  Mill  in  his 
"  Political  Economy,"  that  protection  for  nas- 
cent industries  in  order  to  remove  the  obsta- 
cles of  starting  is  wise  and  proper.  He  then 
examines  at  length  the  practical  difficulties  of 
scarcity  of  hands,  high  wages,  and  want  of  cap- 
ital, showing  that  the  first  two  are  exaggerated, 
and  need  not  be  seriously  injurious,  and  that 
the  third  can  be  overcome  by  improved  credit, 
the  expansion  of  the  circulating  medium  by  the 
funds,  and  through  attracting  foreign  capital. 
To  the  objection  that  protection  tends  to  create 
monopolies  and  benefit  a  class  at  the  expense  of 
the  rest  of  the  community,  he  replies,  first,  that 
the  increase  of  the  price  of  commodities,  even  at 
the  outset,  is  much  exaggerated,  and  does  not 


THE  TREASURY  111 

always  occur ;  and,  second,  that  in  the  end  the 
establishment  of  manufactures  is  a  benefit  and 
profit  to  all.  The  same  reasoning  applies  to 
the  objection  that  one  section  of  the  country 
is  aided  at  the  expense  of  a  loss  to  the  other. 
In  the  aggregate  and  ultimately,  all  must  ben- 
efit, and  agriculture  will  probably  be  directly 
stimulated,  as  in  the  case  of  cotton,  for  which 
manufactories  in  the  North  will  at  once  open  a 
market.  Then  are  shown  the  benefits  to  trade 
from  diversity  of  pursuits  and  product;  and, 
lastly,  the  wealth,  and  above  all  the  independ- 
ence and  security,  to  be  gained  by  manufactures. 
In  the  vast  territory  of  the  United  States  almost 
everything  can  be  produced,  and  in  the  success- 
ful establishment  of  manufactures  Hamilton  saw 
the  road  to  an  absolute  independence  far  beyond 
the  reach  of  foreign  nations. 

With  patient  detail  all  important  articles  of 
industry  are  examined  separately,  every  small 
advantage  or  disadvantage  weighed  and  pointed 
out,  and  every  form  of  protection  and  govern- 
mental aid  carefully  discussed.  In  the  latter 
are  included  premiums  on  invention  and  a 
patent  system,  while  a  strong  plea  is  made  in 
favor  of  assistance  from  the  government  in  the 
construction  of  roads  and  bridges.  Here  Ham- 
ilton introduces  the  doctrine  of  internal  im- 
provements, destined  to  be  for  so  long  a  time  a 


112  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

subject  of  division ;  and  for  this,  as  for  protec- 
tion, he  finds  his  constitutional  authority  in  the 
theory  of  the  implied  powers,  and  in  the  broad 
expression  of  the  right  "  to  provide  for  the  gen- 
eral welfare."  His  plan  for  the  encouragement 
and  establishment  of  manufactures  was  by  a 
combination  of  bounties  and  protective  duties, 
the  surplus  revenue  of  the  latter  to  supply  the 
funds  for  the  former. 

In  the  year  1791,  with  all  nations  protecting 
their  manufactures,  Hamilton  was  a  strong  pro- 
tectionist, aiming  chiefly  at  the  development  of 
nascent  industries.  What  he  would  be  to-day 
must  be  matter  of  speculation,  but  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  in  the  presence  of  the  great  results  of 
his  policy  he  would  not  be  likely  to  abandon  it. 
The  report  011  manufactures,  as  it  stands,  con- 
tains the  best  and  soundest  argument,  not  on 
the  general  question  of  free  trade  and  protec- 
tion, but  on  that  question  as  connected  with 
the  United  States.  "Most  general  theories, 
however,"  says  Hamilton  at  the  outset,  with 
reference  to  free  trade,  "  admit  of  numerous  ex- 
ceptions," and  therefore  he  confines  himself  to 
the  United  States,  and  has  little  to  do  with 
abstract  theory,  except  by  way  of  respectful 
mention.  Hamilton's  report,  as  an  argument  in 
favor  of  protection,  must  be  tried  solely  with 
reference  to  the  United  States,  under  all  the 


THE  TREASURY  113 

circumstances  surrounding  them,  and  with  all 
their  opportunities  and  possibilities.  If  it  is 
put  to  this  test,  setting  aside  all  its  literary  and 
scientific  merits,  it  remains  the  best  and  most 
complete  argument  for  a  protective  policy  in 
the  United  States  which  we  possess.  No  new 
and  fundamental  principle  has  been  added  to 
Hamilton's  reasoning,  but  his  report  has  been  a 
welcome  armory  to  generations  of  disputants, 
and  is  still  waiting  to  be  successfully  answered 
and  overthrown. 

The  report  on  manufactures  completed  the 
financial  policy  devised  and  carried  through  by 
Hamilton  and  the  Federalists.  During  his  offi- 
cial term  he  sent  to  Congress,  of  course,  very 
many  reports  besides  those  which  are  here  dis- 
cussed; but  in  these  four,  indeed  in  three  of 
them,  his  policy  in  all  essential  points  is  em- 
bodied. From  these  reports  came  the  funding 
system,  the  revenue  system,  the  sinking  fund, 
national  banking,  the  currency,  and  the  first 
enunciation  of  the  protective  policy.  They  car- 
ried with  them  the  great  doctrine  of  the  im- 
plied powers  of  the  Constitution,  and  opened 
up  the  important  question  of  internal  improve- 
ments. So  far  as  public  policy  could  do  it, 
they  laid  the  foundation  of  the  material  pro- 
sperity of  the  United  States.  As  Gouverneur 
Morris  said,  what  was  left  of  the  Revolution 


114  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

grounded  on  finance,  and  so  finance  was  the 
first  all-absorbing  and  all-important  question 
which  confronted  the  new  government  of  1789. 
A  successful  financial  policy  meant  the  success- 
ful establishment  of  the  new  government.  Be- 
hind all  this  lay  the  great  constitutional  doc- 
trines which  Hamilton  raised  up  and  defended, 
and  the  still  greater  political  influence  of  his 
work.  Hamilton  was  striving  for  a  vigorous 
national  life,  and  his  chief  object  was  to  impart 
to  the  central  government  the  greatest  possible 
strength.  He  armed  the  government  with  credit 
and  with  a  productive  revenue ;  he  won  for  it 
the  hearty  good-will  of  the  business  world  ;  he 
gave  it  a  potent  ally  in  the  national  bank ;  by 
the  funding  system  and  the  bank  he  drew  out 
and  welded  together,  with  the  strong  influence 
of  pecuniary  interest,  a  powerful  class,  which 
knew  no  state  lines ;  and  by  his  protective 
policy  and  internal  improvements  he  aimed  to 
create  yet  another  vigorous  body  of  supporters, 
and  give  the  government  still  more  strength 
and  popularity.  It  was  a  great  policy,  the  work 
of  a  master:mind  looking  far  into  the  future. 
It  was  the  foundation  of  a  great  party,  and  the 
corner-stone  from  which  the  federal  government 
was  built  up.  It  only  remains  to  trace  its  his- 
tory and  results,  as  it  was  gradually  unfolded 
before  Congress  and  the  people,  and  became 
the  central  point  of  politics  and  parties. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RESULTS   OF  THE   FINANCIAL  POLICY 

THE  publication  of  the  first  report  on  the 
public  credit  was  awaited  with  intense  eager- 
ness. When  it  came,  there  was,  of  course, 
much  excitement  and  a  general  rise  in  the  se- 
curities of  the  bankrupt  Confederation.  Eager 
speculators  hurried  over  the  country  to  buy  up 
the  debt,  and  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
already  began  to  be  regarded  as  one  who  could 
make  the  fortune  not  only  of  the  government 
but  of  individuals.  Congress  having  decided 
that  they  would  not  listen  to  the  perilous  ora- 
tory of  Hamilton,  but  confine  him  to  writing, 
took  up  the  report.  As  to  the  payment  of  the 
foreign  debt,  all  were  agreed,  and  that  portion 
was  adopted  without  discussion ;  but  on  the 
payment  of  the  domestic  debt  a  fierce  conflict 
arose.  The  root  of  this  opposition  was  in  the 
old  repudiating,  disintegrating  spirit  of  the 
Confederation  which  still  survived,  and  which 
found  even  plainer  expression  in  resistance  to 
Hamilton's  proposition  to  pay  the  arrears  of  in- 
terest in  the  same  way  as  all  other  indebtedness* 


116  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

No  one,  however,  was  ready  to  take  this  stand 
against  the  domestic  debt  and  advocate  its  ab- 
solute repudiation ;  perhaps,  indeed,  no  one 
really  desired  such  a  proceeding  in  its  full- 
est extent,  although  the  old  demoralization  was 
really  at  the  bottom  of  the  hostility.  The  op- 
position sought  to  thwart  the  secretary  and 
maim  his  plans,  on  grounds  in  appearance  more 
reasonable  and  certainly  more  likely  to  arouse 
popular  sympathy.  They  found  their  opening 
in  the  speculation  which  had  begun  with  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  which  reached 
a  fever  heat  on  the  publication  of  the  secre- 
tary's report,  when  the  certificates  of  debt  had 
bounded  up  to  high  prices  at  a  single  jump. 
The  obvious  cry  was  against  the  greedy  and 
successful  speculator  in  possession  of  the  certi- 
ficates, which  he  had  obtained  for  a  song  from 
the  original  holders.  The  "  original  holder " 
now  figured  as  a  patriot  cruelly  wronged,  and 
in  many  instances  he  was  a  soldier,  which  gave 
an  additional  point  to  the  lamentations  in  his 
behalf,  raised  generally  by  men  who,  under  the 
old  Confederation,  which  still  held  their  affec- 
tions, had  flouted  with  utter  indifference  all 
claims,  both  of  soldier  and  patriotic  lender. 

But  this  inconsistency  did  not  affect  the  value 
of  the  argument  as  a  political  cry.  And  there 
was,  too,  some  ground  for  it  in  many  cases  ol 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    117 

undoubted  hardship.  Hamilton  and  his  friends 
freely  admitted  the  force  of  this  objection,  but 
the  secretary  argued  that  the  great  object  was 
to  restore  the  credit  and  good  name  of  the 
United  States,  to  do  what  was  just  in  the  ma- 
jority of  instances  and  to  the  greatest  number, 
and  he  urged,  in  conclusion,  that  any  other 
course  was  impracticable.  His  reasoning  could 
not  be  answered,  but  it  did  not  quell  the  con- 
flict. One  proposition  was,  in  cases  where  the 
certificate  was  in  the  hands  of  a  purchaser,  to 
pay  him  only  what  he  had  himself  paid  the  ori- 
ginal holder.  The  violation  of  contracts  thus 
involved  was  the  fatal  objection  of  Hamilton ; 
but  this  plan  carried  with  it,  moreover,  a  very 
deep  mark  of  the  lurking  desire  to  get  out  of 
debt  by  partial  repudiation.  To  the  surprise 
of  every  one,  Madison  came  out  in  favor  of  dis- 
crimination; but  he  admitted  that  the  certifi- 
cates must  be  paid  in  full ;  and  proposed  a  plan 
for  a  division  between  the  original  holder  and 
the  purchaser  so  hopelessly  impracticable,  that 
he  could  muster  only  thirteen  votes  in  his  sup- 
port. Madison  shrank  from  anything  like  dis- 
honesty, but  he  was  beginning  to  break  from 
the  friends  of  the  Constitution  and  from  the 
party  to  which  he  naturally  belonged,  because 
he  felt  the  drift  of  Virginian  sentiment,  and 
was  not  strong  enough  to  withstand  the  pres- 


118  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

sure.  In  this  struggle,  the  supporters  of  the 
secretary,  known  as  the  Federalists,  and  hitherto 
acting  merely  as  friends  of  the  Constitution, 
first  gained  real  cohesion  as  a  party  devoted  to 
a  given  policy.  Their  only  opponent  of  ability 
was  Madison,  and  his  opposition  was  rendered 
abortive  and  impracticable  by  his  honesty  and 
logic.  The  debate  was  long  and  heated,  but 
the  Federalists,  having  ability,  sound  reason, 
and  the  advantage  of  position  on  their  side, 
prevailed.  They  also  carried  through  the  pay- 
ment of  the  arrears  of  interest.  Only  one  point 
remained,  and  that  was  the  crucial  test,  the  as- 
sumption of  the  state  debts.  Much  had  been 
done  before  this  point  was  reached.  Even  if 
Congress  went  no  farther  than  they  had  already 
gone,  the  credit  of  the  country  was  reasonably 
safe;  but  the  policy  of  the  secretary  would 
have  been  sadly  mutilated.  Public  credit  would 
not  be  rounded  and  complete ;  and,  above  all, 
the  financial  policy  would  have  been  deprived 
of  much  of  its  political  and  constitutional  ef- 
fects upon  parties,  upon  the  strength  of  the 
government,  and  upon  the  relations  of  the 
States.  Sharp  as  the  battle  had  been  over 
discrimination  in  the  payment  of  the  domestic 
debt,  it  was  a  mere  preliminary  skirmish  com- 
pared to  the  conflict  upon  assumption.  The 
lines  were  clearly  drawn,  for  Hamilton  himself 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    119 

had  marked  them  out.  Parties  were  marshaled 
now,  not  on  the  acceptance  of  the  Constitution, 
but  as  to  the  policy  of  the  government  created 
by  the  Constitution ;  and  on  the  question  of 
assumption  they  faced  each  other  for  the  first 
vigorous,  well-defined  political  contest  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States. 

There  was  no  need  here  to  cast  about  for 
popular  arguments,  as  in  the  case  of  the  domes- 
tic debt,  where  the  real  grounds  and  objects 
of  opposition  were  not  clearly  conceived,  or 
were  better  hidden  from  view.  There  was  an 
abundance  of  subsidiary  and  obvious  arguments 
brought  forward  to  the  effect  that  too  great  a 
burden  would  be  laid  upon  the  people ;  that  the 
state  debts  could  not  with  justice  be  saddled 
upon  the  United  States;  that  assumption  was 
unfair  in  benefiting  some  States  largely  and  not 
helping  others,  and  among  them  some  of  the 
most  deserving,  at  all.  All  these  points  were 
raised,  and  local  feeling  ran  very  high,  particu- 
larly upon  the  last,  leading  to  much  angry  re- 
crimination and  comparison  of  services  in  the 
Re  volution.  But  after  all  was  said,  the  most 
vigorous  attack  was  against  the  chief  purpose 
of  the  secretary,  the  enrl  which  he  here  had 
in  view  above  all  others  of  strengthening  the 
national  government  by  this  large  increase  of 
its  creditors,  transferring  the  interest  of  a  pow- 


120  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

erful  class  from  the  States  to  the  Union,  and  in 
this  way  binding  the  States  closer  together  and 
weakening  enormously  the  vigor  of  the  state- 
rights  sentiments.  Politically  it  was  a  bold  and 
masterly  stroke,  but  Hamilton's  opponents  saw 
at  what  it  aimed  as  plainly  as  he  did  himself. 
A  loud  cry  went  up  against  this  centralizing 
movement.  The  anti-Federalists,  with  reviving 
dislike  of  the  Constitution,  felt  with  sudden 
keenness  the  strength  and  pressure  of  the  bonds 
which  the  minister  of  finance  was  drawing  closer 
and  closer  about  the  people  and  the  States,  and 
they  struggled  desperately  to  get  free. 

Hamilton  had  foreseen  this  opposition,  but  he 
had  reckoned  on  certain  forces  to  sustain  him, 
and  he  did  not  reckon  in  vain.  His  first  ally 
was  the  enthusiasm  aroused  by  his  own  policy ; 
his  second,  the  confidence  and  interest  of  the 
capitalists  and  merchants ;  his  third,  the  direct 
pecuniary  gain  to  certain  States  in  the  success 
of  assumption ;  and  his  fourth  and  most  impor- 
tant, the  powerful  body  of  able  men  in  and  out 
of  Congress  who  desired  a  strong  central  gov- 
ernment, whose  objects  were  the  same  as  his  own, 
and  who  had  found  in  him  a  leader  about  whom 
they  could  gather  in  solid  phalanx.  These 
forces  prevailed.  After  a  long  and  heated  con- 
flict, assumption  was  carried  in  committee  of  the 
whole,  but  the  majority,  although  compact  and 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    121 

unyielding,  was  narrow.  Delay  served  the  op- 
position well.  When  the  resolutions  got  out  of 
committee  and  came  up  in  the  House,  the  mem- 
bers from  North  Carolina,  at  last  in  the  Union, 
had  taken  their  seats,  and  they  turned  the  scale 
against  assumption.  By  their  aid  the  resolution 
was  recommitted,  and  the  Federalists,  deter- 
mined to  have  all  or  nothing,  sent  the  rest  of 
the  measures  back  with  it.  Again  the  party 
opposed  to  assumption  prevailed,  and  the  whole 
policy  was  at  a  stand.  Feeling  ran  very  high, 
and  ugly  murmurs  of  dissolution  began  to  be 
heard.  It  looked  as  if  the  measures,  destined 
above  all  others  to  consolidate  the  new  Union, 
would  wreck  it  at  the  very  start.  Hamilton 
had  summoned  his  spirits,  and  they  had  come  to 
him.  All  the  forces  he  had  calculated  upon  had 
responded  and  done  their  work,  but  a  new  fac- 
tor had  been  introduced  and  they  could  do  no 
more.  The  dead-lock  was  as  perilous  as  it  was 
unforeseen,  but  the  adverse  majority  was  very 
small,  only  two  votes,  and  Hamilton  was  not 
only  determined  but  fertile  in  resources.  He 
would  not  yield  one  jot  of  his  financial  policy, 
but  he  was  perfectly  ready  to  give  up  something 
else;  and  in  the  site  of  the  new  capital,  the 
federal  city,  he  found  a  suitable  victim  for  the 
sacrifice. 

This  matter  of  the  seat  of  crovernment  had 


122  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

excited  great  controversy  and  feeling  between 
States  and  sections.  Whether  the  future  capi- 
tal should  be  in  New  York  or  Pennsylvania,  in 
Virginia  or  Maryland  ;  whether  this  inestimable 
boon  should  fall  to  the  North  or  to  the  South, 
was  a  burning  question  second  only  to  assump- 
tion. Local  prejudice  and  local  pride  were 
raised  to  white  heat  on  this  momentous  issue. 
To  Hamilton  all  this  was  supremely  indifferent. 
Much  of  his  strength  and  somewhat  of  his 
weakness  as  a  public  man  came  from  the  fact 
that,  while  he  was  purely  and  intensely  national 
in  opinion,  and  was  devotedly  attached  to  the 
United  States,  he  was  utterly  devoid  of  local 
feeling  and  of  state  pride.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  cared  one  whit,  except  as  a  matter  of 
mere  abstract  convenience,  where  Congress  fixed 
the  site  of  the  federal  city ;  but  he  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  fact  that  everybody  about  him  cared 
a  great  deal,  and  whether  reasonably  or  not  was 
of  no  consequence.  The  party  which  favored 
assumption  were,  as  a  rule,  on  the  side  of  a 
northern  capital,  and  had  prevailed.  The  party 
which  resisted  assumption  favored  a  southern 
capital,  and  had  been  beaten.  To  gain  the 
necessary  votes  for  assumption  Hamilton  deter- 
mined to  sacrifice  what  he  justly  thought  was 
a  perfectly  trivial  question,  and  thus  save  the 
financial  policy  which  he  rightly  considered  to 


RESULTS   OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    123 

be  of  vital  importance,  and  the  very  corner-stone 
of  the  new  government.  To  carry  out  this 
scheme  he  needed  the  alliance  of  a  Southern 
leader,  and  he  pitched  upon  the  man  fated  to 
become  his  great  opponent,  —  the  leader  and 
type  of  one  school  of  thought  and  politics,  as 
Hamilton  was  himself  the  leader  and  type  of 
the  other. 

Thomas  Jefferson  had  just  returned  from 
France  and  taken  his  place  at  the  head  of 
Washington's  cabinet.  He  came  back  with  both 
body  and  brain  dressed  in  the  French  fashion. 
His  subtle,  ingenious  mind  was  full  of  the  ideas 
of  the  French  Kevolution,  then  beginning  in 
Paris.  But  except  for  his  belief  in  liberty  and 
humanity,  which  was  born  with  him  and  which 
he  did  not  go  to  Paris  to  learn,  the  wild  ravings 
of  the  Jacobin  clubs  and  the  doctrines  of  Marat 
and  Eobespierre  were  as  little  a  part  of  the  real 
man  as  his  French  clothes.  He  would  use  the 
ideas  of  French  democracy  so  long  as  they  were 
useful  and  a  fit  covering  for  his  real  purposes, 
and  then  he  would  lay  them  aside  as  he  did  his 
French  coat  when  it  was  worn  out.  With  his 
mind  thus  occupied,  Jefferson  had  come  home  to 
an  America  very  different  from  the  one  he  had 
left.  A  new  government,  with  the  inception  and 
plan  of  which  he  had  had  but  little  sympathy, 
had  been  constructed,  and  the  foundations  of  a 


124  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

strong  state  were  already  rising  among  the  ruins 
of  the  old  confederacy.  He  found  a  vigorous 
party,  led  for  the  most  part  by  new  men,  ar- 
rayed in  defense  of  a  strong  central  government, 
and  urging  forward  all  measures  calculated  to 
invigorate  it.  Opposed  to  them  were  a  body  of 
men,  numerous,  it  is  true,  but  scattered  and  dis- 
organized, with  no  possible  party  ground  except 
resistance  to  the  Constitution  and  all  its  works. 
Jefferson,  with  his  keen  perceptions,  saw  at  a 
glance  the  folly  of  opposition  to  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  but  as  he  surveyed  the  field  on  which  he 
had  just  arrived  it  was  by  no  means  easy  to 
determine  what  position  to  take.  Nevertheless, 
while  he  waited  and  watched  for  developments^, 
he  had  to  do  something,  and  that  something,  as 
was  most  natural,  was  to  give  his  support  to  the 
administration  of  which  he  was  a  part,  and  to 
its  measures,  which  then  consisted  of  Hamilton's 
financial  policy,  hanging  in  the  balance  on  the 
decision  of  Congress  as  to  assumption.  Jeffer- 
son saw  as  plainly  as  anybody  the  scope  of  the 
financial  policy  and  the  intrinsic  merit  of  as- 
sumption. He  had,  moreover,  no  prejudices  at 
that  time  against  the  author  of  the  policy.  With 
no  line  marked  out  for  his  conduct,  and  ready, 
until  events  decided  otherwise,  to  sustain  the 
administration,  he  fell  in  easily  enough  with  the 
schemes  of  his  colleague.  There  was  a  little  talk 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    125 

and  a  little  dinner,  and  Hamilton  agreed  to  se- 
cure votes  for  a  southern  capital,  and  Jefferson 
promised  to  do  the  same  for  assumption.  It 
would  be  an  error  to  treat  this  as  a  bargain  or 
compromise  between  opposing  factions,  for  it 
was  the  work  of  two  cabinet  ministers  favoring 
the  same  policy.  Hamilton  gained  success  for 
his  great  plans.  Jefferson  by  his  personal  influ- 
ence helped  to  carry  through  the  measures  of 
the  administration  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
and  obtained  in  return  the  concession  of  the  site 
of  the  capital,  which  was  of  value  to  him  as  a 
Southern  leader.  In  after  times,  when  Ham- 
ilton stood  to  Jefferson  and  his  party  as  the 
representative  of  all  that  was  bad,  the  memory 
of  this  transaction  of  1790,  and  of  a  friendly 
alliance  with  the  great  Federalist,  became  trou- 
blesome. Jefferson  would  fain  have  erased  from 
history  the  whole  business.  He  wished  the  world 
to  believe  that  the  wicked,  aristocratic,  monar- 
chical Federalists  had  always  been  his  foes,  and 
had  found  in  him  their  mightiest  opponent.  Yet 
there  was  the  ugly  fact  that  he  had  himself 
turned  the  scale  in  favor  of  one  of  their  funda- 
mental measures.  His  manner  of  dealing  with 
the  problem  was  characteristic.  He  did  not  ex- 
plain it  away  in  his  lifetime,  for  he  might  have 
met  with  awkward  contradiction.  But  he  set  it 
all  down  for  the  benefit  of  posterity,  and  then 


126  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

excused  himself  for  having  supported  a  measure 
of  the  administration  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, and  for  having  aided  the  accursed  Federal- 
ists, by  saying  that  he  was  "  duped  by  Hamil- 
ton." 

It  is  impossible  to  resist  pausing  over  this 
statement,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  amusing  ever 
made  even  by  Jefferson,  and  shows  a  confidence 
in  the  credulity  of  posterity  which  is  not  flat- 
tering. In  justice  to  Jefferson  it  must  be  said 
that,  as  long  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  get 
himself  out  of  what  he  considered  a  scrape,  this 
was  the  only  excuse  he  could  make.  But  it  was, 
unluckily,  a  most  clumsy  and  transparent  decep- 
tion. Thomas  Jefferson  had  his  weaknesses  and 
his  failings,  but  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  hu- 
man nature  and  human  character  was  not  among 
them.  In  the  difficult  art  of  understanding  his 
fellow  men  he  was  unrivaled,  and  he  was  never 
deceived  by  any  man,  unless  by  himself  and  as 
to  his  own  motives.  On  the  other  hand,  Ham- 
ilton was  the  very  last  man  to  succeed  in  duping 
others,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  anything 
more  impossible  to  Hamilton  than  the  feat  at- 
tributed to  him  by  his  rival.  He  had  a  direct- 
ness of  thought  and  action  which  was  always 
remarkable,  and  at  times  overbearing  and  intol- 
erant. It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  he  could 
have  successfully  duped  any  one,  even  if  he  had 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    127 

tried,  and  he  certainly  had  far  too  much  sense 
to  have  attempted  such  an  experiment  on  so 
unpromising  a  subject  as  Jefferson. 

But  we  are  indebted  to  Jefferson,  and  to  his 
inability  to  let  well  alone,  for  the  details  of 
this  whole  matter,  since  the  other  side  held 
their  tongues.  The  Federalists  were  not,  as  a 
party,  given  to  useless  chatter,  while  Hamilton 
as  usual  went  straight  to  his  mark,  called  out 
unexpected  resources,  and  said  nothing  about 
it.  Congress  took  up  the  funding  measures 
again,  and  the  old  angry  wrangling  went  on 
even  after  a  disagreeable  consciousness  that 
they  were  beaten  in  some  unknown  way  had 
crept  over  the  opposition.  When  the  decisive 
moment  came,  their  fears  were  fully  confirmed. 
The  capital  went  to  the  Potomac  and  assump- 
tion was  voted.  The  first  great  battle  had  now 
been  fought  in  all  its  parts  and  the  secretary 
had  won. 

The  plans  for  the  revenue,  for  the  excise,  for 
the  mint,  were  adopted  in  principle,  and  sub- 
stantially as  Hamilton  advised.  The  secre- 
tary's innocent  suggestion,  that  the  image  and 
symbols  on  the  coins  might  be  made  to  have  an 
educational  bearing,  led  to  a  proposal  to  stamp 
on  one  side  of  the  coins  the  head  of  the  Presi- 
dent for  the  time  being.  This  harmless  propo- 
sition produced  a  debate  amusing  to  us,  but 


128  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

very  earnest,  heated,  and  real  a  hundred  years 
ago.  The  upshot  of  it  all  was  the  adoption  of 
the  head  of  Liberty  for  the  coins,  and  the  dis- 
cussion has  no  value  except  as  showing  the  state 
of  public  feeling.  From  this  utterly  insignifi- 
cant controversy  we  see  that  when  Hamilton 
sought  to  advance  the  cause  of  strong  central- 
ized government  and  of  an  aristocratic  republic 
he  was  not  crying  in  the  wilderness.  He  ap- 
pealed to  clearly  marked  opinions,  entertained 
by  a  body  of  men  powerful  by  their  talents  if 
not  by  their  numbers.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
appears  an  immense  amount  of  ill-defined  sen- 
timent cherished  by  a  majority  of  the  people, 
but  in  a  party  sense  ill-regulated  and  incoher- 
ent, which  turned  longingly  back  toward  the 
days  of  a  shattered  confederacy  and  sovereign 
States,  which  was  thoroughly  democratic,  and 
looked  with  morbid  suspicion  on  everything,  no 
matter  what,  which  tended  to  lend  strength  or 
dignity  to  the  central  government.  It  was  this 
opposition  which  met  Hamilton  at  every  point, 
and  which,  as  it  felt  his  strong  hand  drawing 
the  bonds  of  federal  and  national  government 
more  and  more  tightly,  detected  aristocracy  in 
every  public  office,  and  scented  monarchy  in  the 
image  and  superscription  of  the  coins  ;  while 
among  the  party  of  the  secretary  were  to  be 
found  those  who,  with  all  their  wise  policy  and 


RESULTS  OF  THE   FINANCIAL  POLICY    129 

high  purposes,  believed  forms  and  titles  essen- 
tial not  merely  to  dignity  but  to  strength.  The 
truth,  as  usual,  lay  somewhere  between  the 
extremes  illustrated  by  the  trifling  symbols  on 
which  excessive  partisans  set  a  high  price. 

The  next  really  great  measure  in  the  finan- 
cial policy  gave  rise  to  a  stubborn  contest  which 
was  carried  through  both  houses  of  Congress 
and  into  the  cabinet,  there  to  receive  its  final 
decision  at  the  hands  of  Washington.  The 
opposition,  which  had  been  aroused  by  the 
assumption  of  the  state  debts,  to  the  strength- 
ening and  concentrating  effect  of  the  financial 
policy,  cried  out  loudly  against  the  additional 
bond  of  union  disclosed  in  the  bank.  They 
railed  against  the  class  which  was  thus  being 
bound  to  the  government,  and  against  the  capi- 
talists who  were  being  brought  to  the  side  of 
the  administration.  They  pointed  out  that  the 
South  and  agriculture  were  sacrificed  to  the 
North  and  trade.  But  all  was  vain.  Hamilton 
was  now  on  the  flood-tide  of  success,  and  the 
national  bank  passed  by  a  good  majority.  The 
most  formidable  weapon  employed  against  it 
was  the  constitutional  argument  used  by  Madi- 
son, and,  as  the  President  was  known  to  have 
doubts  on  this  point,  the  last  and  strongest 
Btand  was  made  in  the  cabinet.  Jefferson,  Ran- 
dolph, and  Madison  severally  gave  Washington 


130  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

written  arguments  against  the  bank.  In  great 
haste  and  pressed  by  business,  Hamilton  made 
the  famous  reply  which  has  already  been  dis- 
cussed, and  which  gained  Washington's  adher- 
ence. In  defending  the  bank,  Hamilton  estab- 
lished the  doctrine  of  the  implied  powers,  —  a 
matter  infinitely  more  potent  and  more  far- 
reaching  than  the  establishment  of  the  great 
financial  machine  which  called  it  forth. 

The  last  of  the  reports,  that  on  manufactures, 
was  economically  more  important  than  any  of  its 
predecessors,  but  it  had  no  immediate  results. 
Congress  had  already  discussed  the  question 
vaguely,  and  had  done  something  to  favor  home 
production  and  American  commerce.  The  ques- 
tion of  protection  or  free  trade  was  constantly  in 
men's  minds,  but  a  system  was  of  slow  growth. 
Hamilton  pointed  to  the  road  to  be  followed, 
and  other  men  traveled  in  it,  among  the  first 
Jefferson  and  Madison  with  their  plan  of  "  al- 
lowances "  for  the  fisheries,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  denounced  the  theory,  its  author,  and 
all  his  works,  including  "  protection  and  boun- 
ties." Hamilton  marked  out  clearly  and  fully 
a  plan  for  the  development  of  industry,  trade, 
and  commerce.  He  turned  the  current  of 
thought,  he  influenced  the  future,  but  the  task 
was  too  mighty,  the  scheme  was  too  vast  to  be 
carried  out  at  once,  or  in  fact  otherwise  than 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    131 

piecemeal,  although  its  suggestion  was  a  fit 
termination  to  the  great  work  which  he  had 
accomplished.  , 

Thus  was  the  financial  policy  completed, 
adopted,  and  put  in  operation  as  Hamilton  de- 
signed it.  The  only  mischance  was  the  specu- 
lation which  began  with  the  debt  certificates, 
was  fostered  by  the  success  of  the  bank,  and  ex- 
panded into  a  wild  mania,  and  consequent  panic 
and  disaster.  From  the  outset  the  secretary 
had  striven  to  check  this  spirit,  of  which  he  saw 
the  evil  and  danger.  He  repelled  his  friends 
who  sought  information,  and  did  all  that  was 
possible  to  cool  the  excitement.  He  strove  in 
vain,  and  then  was  blamed  for  the  speculation, 
the  rapid  fortunes,  and  the  swift  disaster  alike. 

The  only  miscalculation  made  by  Hamilton 
was  in  regard  to  the  rate  of  interest,  which  he 
supposed  would  fall,  but  which,  owing  to  the 
marvelous  rapidity  of  material  development  and 
the  consequent  employment  of  capital,  really 
rose.  The  error  was  almost  unavoidable,  and  it 
was  quite  harmless.  The  criticisms  which  have 
been  made  on  this  famous  series  of  measures 
have  been  various  and  contradictory.  It  was 
said  at  the  time  that  Hamilton  made  the  debt 
too  permanent,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  was 
also  urged  that  he  was  putting  too  great  a 
burden  on  the  people,  and  the  shorter  the  loan 


132  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  greater  the  immediate  burden.  In  this  he 
observed  a  just  mean  and  a  wise  moderation. 
The  unexpected  rate  of  growth  in  the  country 
showed  afterwards  that  the  debt  might  have 
been  paid  more  rapidly,  but  at  the  moment 
Hamilton's  anticipations  of  revenue  were  gener- 
ally regarded  as  absurdly  sanguine.  The  most 
forcible  criticism,  which  was  made  either  then 
or  since,  was  that  the  financial  policy  was  too 
strong,  that  it  put  too  great  a  strain  upon  the 
infant  experiment,  ventured  too  much,  ran  too 
great  a  risk,  and  came  near  causing  shipwreck. 
Hamilton  reasoned  that,  if  his  financial  policy 
could  be  made  successful,  a  good  national  gov- 
ernment might  be  built  up,  and  that  if  it  proved 
too  strong  and  the  new  system  gave  way,  then 
the  Constitution  was  not  worth  preserving.  Of 
the  soundness  of  this  argument,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But  after  all,  the 
best  evidence  is  in  results.  There  was  no  public 
credit.  Hamilton  created  it.  There  was  no  cir- 
culating medium,  no  financial  machinery ;  he 
supplied  them.  Business  was  languishing,  and 
business  revived  under  the  treasury  measures. 
There  was  no  government,  no  system  with  life 
in  it,  only  a  paper  constitution.  Hamilton  exer- 
cised the  powers  granted  by  the  Constitution, 
pointed  out  those  which  lay  hidden  in  its  dry 
clauses,  and  gave  vitality  to  the  lifeless  instru* 


RESULTS  OF  THE  FINANCIAL  POLICY    133 

ment.  He  drew  out  the  resources  of  the  country, 
he  exercised  the  powers  of  the  Constitution,  he 
gave  courage  to  the  people,  he  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  national  government, — and  this  was  the 
meaning  and  result  of  the  financial  policy. 


CHAPTER 

PAKTY   CONTESTS 

IN  carrying  through  his  measures,  Hamilton 
had  found  in  the  friends  of  the  Constitution 
material  for  a  political  party.  The  Federalists, 
when  the  new  scheme  adopted  by  their  efforts 
went  into  operation  in  March,  1789,  were  a  very 
different  body  from  that  which  stood  about  the 
administration  after  the  passage  of  the  treasury 
measures.  When  the  first  Congress  assembled, 
the  Federalists  had  achieved  their  immediate 
object,  and  were  waiting  for  the  progress  of 
events.  They  were  like  a  body  of  volunteers, 
who  had  rushed  together  to  fight  a  battle  im- 
mediately before  them,  and  when  the  victory 
had  been  won  and  the  enemy  scattered  they 
were  but  loosely  held  together,  and,  as  they 
stood  looking  about  rather  vaguely,  dispersion 
was  quite  as  probable  as  organization.  To  the 
Federalists  Hamilton  came  as  a  leader.  He 
gave  them  new  objects,  he  raised  still  higher 
the  standard  of  better  government,  showed  them 
how  the  Constitution  was  to  be  made  to  bear 
fruit,  and  that  its  adoption  was  merely  the  be- 


PARTY  CONTESTS  135 

ginning  of  the  great  work  for  which  they  had 
come  forward.  When  the  financial  policy  was 
finally  embodied  in  legislation,  the  band  of  vol- 
unteers had  become  a  compact,  well-disciplined 
army,  a  strong  party  with  a  policy  which  showed 
great  things  done,  and  stretched  forward  to  the 
future,  pointing  out  what  was  still  to  be  accom- 
plished. This  was  the  political  success  of  the 
financial  policy,  but  it  was  not  without  its  pen- 
alty to  the  triumphant  Federalists  in  general 
and  to  Hamilton  in  particular. 

If  the  Federalists  in  1789  resembled  a  hastily 
gathered  army  of  volunteers,  their  opponents 
were  mere  scattered  bands  of  guerillas.  Broken 
by  the  successful  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
they  wandered  helplessly  about,  and  gave  way, 
with  a  good  deal  of  spasmodic  struggling,  before 
the  compact  forces  and  sharp  assaults  of  the 
Federalists.  Their  only  bond  of  union  had  been 
resistance  to  the  Constitution,  and  this  not  only 
became  constantly  weaker,  but  injured  them  by 
its  very  existence,  as  the  popularity  of  the  new 
system  rapidly  increased.  Strong  as  they  were 
in  numbers,  the  Democratic  party  of  the  future 
had  no  better  name  than  anti-Federalists,  and 
no  better  cry  than  that  of  opposition  to  every- 
thing emanating  from  the  government.  This 
loose,  incoherent  mass  was  welded  together  by 
Hamilton's  aggressive,  decisive  policy.  It  was 


136  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

not  much  to  do,  but  it  at  least  compacted  them, 
so  that  if  the  Federalists  presented,  when  the 
National  Bank  Act  passed,  an  appearance  of 
which  any  leader  might  be  proud,  they  were 
confronted  by  much  more  formidable  opponents 
than  when  they  carried  with  a  sweep  the  funding 
of  the  domestic  debt.  The  anti-Federalists  had 
not  only  consolidated  themselves,  but  they  had 
concentrated  their  opposition  with  extraordinary 
intensity  upon  one  man.  In  those  early  days 
Hamilton  was  thought  by  his  opponents  to  be 
the  embodiment  of  all  power,  and  as  his  policy 
was  developed  before  them  he  came  to  be  con- 
sidered the  embodiment  of  all  evil  as  well.  His 
followers  at  first  seemed  to  have  been  regarded 
largely  as  his  creatures,  and  the  dislike  of  the 
anti-Federalists  extended  only  very  gradually 
beyond  the  confines  of  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment. The  secretary  was  once  more  accused  of 
being  "  British "  in  his  tastes  and  sympathies. 
From  England,  his  enemies  declared,  he  had 
borrowed  everything.  Nothing,  it  was  said,  was 
original  in  the  most  successful  financiering  of 
the  time,  and  he  was,  according  to  his  opponents, 
preparing  to  go  even  farther,  and  was  making 
ready  to  introduce  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and 
the  rest.  Then  came  those  hostile  tributes  to 
his  genius  and  ability  which  have  never  been 
surpassed  by  the  eulogies  of  his  friends.  To 


PARTY  CONTESTS  137 

Hamilton  were  attributed  the  sudden  prosperity 
and  the  wild  speculation,  while  he  was  also  held 
responsible  for  not  stopping  the  inevitable  panic 
to  which  speculation  gave  birth.  Every  mem- 
ber of  the  Federalist  party  was  said  to  be  per- 
sonally inspired  by  the  secretary,  and  to  be 
under  the  spell  of  his  magical  eloquence  and 
subtle  reasoning ;  he  had,  as  was  alleged,  be- 
witched and  blinded  the  unerring  judgment  of 
Washington,  which  had  set  the  seal  of  its  ap- 
proval on  the  treasury  policy.  In  attacks  like 
these,  of  little  real  weight,  but  nevertheless  cal- 
culated as  they  increased  in  vehemence  and  repe- 
tition to  arouse  enmity  and  impair  his  influence, 
and  in  the  drawing  together  of  the  opposition, 
Hamilton  found  tfre  dark  side  of  his  brilliant 
success  as  a  financier,  a  statesman,  and  party 
leader.  Still  the  attacks  were  as  yet  mere  mut- 
terings  of  a  possible  storm,  for  the  anti-Federal- 
ists were  after  all  very  weak,  with  but  little 
ability  except  what  Madison  had  brought  over 
to  them,  and  were  living  a  precarious  life  of 
opposition  solely  for  opposition's  sake.  They 
needed  a  policy,  direction  and  point  in  their 
attacks ;  above  all  things  they  needed  a  leader. 
They  found  all  three  at  the  right  hand  of  Wash- 
ington, in  Hamilton's  own  colleague  and  quon- 
dam ally,  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  secretary  of 
state  had  made  up  his  mind.  He  could  no 


138  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

longer  support  the  administration.  He  could 
not  govern  Hamilton,  nor  would  he  be  ruled  by 
him,  and  his  own  State  was  wholly  against  the 
government.  In  Hamilton's  successful  policy 
there  were  the  germs  of  an  aristocratic  republic, 
there  were  certainly  limitations  and  possibly 
dangers  to  pure  democracy ;  he  could  not  hope 
to  lead  or  control  the  Federalists,  and  therefore 
nothing  remained  but  to  go  to  the  leaderless 
multitude  on  the  other  side  and  overthrow  the 
party  of  Washington  and  his  great  secretary. 
This,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was  not  done  in  a 
moment.  Jefferson  was  the  last  man  to  make 
up  his  mind  suddenly  to  a  decisive  step  and 
then  take  it  at  once.  He  had  no  notion  of  cut- 
ting adrift  until  he  saw  how  the  land  lay.  Still 
less  ready  was  he  to  come  boldly  forward  with 
a  programme  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
party.  When  he  had  his  party  all  prepared  he 
would  do  this,  but  meanwhile  he  would  stay 
where  he  was. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  the  exact  time  when 
the  dissensions  in  the  cabinet,  where  the  new 
party  warfare  took  its  rise,  first  definitely  began. 
When  the  flame  leaped  up  before  the  eyes  of 
men,  it  was  evident  that  the  fire  had  been  burn- 
ing for  some  time.  We  may  say,  however,  in  a 
general  way,  that  the  "  rift  within  the  lute  "  be- 
gan after  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  and 


PARTY  CONTESTS  139 

was  greatly  widened  by  the  differences  among 
the  President's  advisers  as  to  the  national  bank. 
It  was  in  the  winter  of  1791-92  that  Hamilton 
became  satisfied  that  Jefferson  and  Madison 
were  organizing  and  leading  a  party  against 
him ;  but  at  that  time,  and  for  some  months  to 
come,  he  held  his  peace,  and  it  would  have  been 
well  if  he  had  continued  to  do  so.  The  secret 
work  of  Jefferson,  who  began  his  hostilities 
against  the  administration  before  any  one  sus- 
pected him,  and  who  continued  them  while 
clinging  to  office  long  after  his  enmity  toward 
all  his  associates  was  notorious,  first  showed 
itself  in  changes  in  the  policy  of  the  opposition. 
In  the  first  place,  they  got  a  name  and  called 
themselves  Republicans,  as  distinguished  from 
monarchists,  the  equivalent  of  Federalists.  The 
objects  of  opposition  became  better  defined,  and 
were  formulated  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  taking 
cries  and  catchwords.  A  clear  line  of  attack 
was  marked  out,  and  in  short,  from  being  a  con- 
fused crowd,  the  anti-Federalists  began  to  as- 
sume the  form  and  substance  of  a  compact  party. 
This  was  the  work  of  Jefferson,  silent,  subtle, 
retiring,  making  no  speeches,  and  printing  no 
essays,  but  doing  a  good  deal  of  quiet  talking 
and  shrewd  letter-writing,  toiling  in  the  dark 
and  managing  men.  In  the  face  of  Hamilton's 
dazzling  success,  to  form  an  opposition  party  of 


140  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

respectable  character  and  good  discipline,  even 
with  abundant  rough  material  at  hand,  was  a 
great  political  feat.  Even  to  make  a  beginning 
took  time,  and  the  few  points  just  mentioned 
were  the  gradual  developments  of  a  twelve- 
month. 

Oddly  enough,  Jefferson's  first  blow  —  which 
shows  him  turning  to  the  opposition  six  months 
before  Hamilton  suspected  it  —  was  hasty,  and 
unlike  himself,  because  it  was  publicly  given, 
and  fell  not  upon  Hamilton  but  upon  John 
Adams.  That  eminent  man,  finding  but  little 
occupation  for  his  restless  energy  in  the  vice- 
presidency,  betook  himself  to  writing  certain 
essays  entitled  "  Discourses  on  Davila."  These 
articles,  speculative  in  character,  but  well  rea- 
soned, and  calculated  to  check  the  fervor  excited 
by  the  French  Revolution,  were  very  sound  and 
conservative  in  tone,  advocated  constitutional 
government,  checks  and  balances,  upper  houses, 
and  the  like.  To  Jefferson,  entering  upon  the 
path  of  a  democratic  leader,  all  this  smacked  of 
monarchy  and  aristocracy,  and  he  forthwith  got 
out  an  edition  of  Paine' s  "  Rights  of  Man  "  as 
an  antidote  to  all  such  pernicious  stuff,  and  pre- 
fixed to  it  a  preface  in  which  he  hit  a  sidelong 
blow  at  the  stout  old  patriot  of  Massachusetts. 
John  Quincy  Adams  replied  as  "  Publicola." 
Jefferson  got  the  worst  of  this  controversy. 


PARTY  CONTESTS  141 

and  after  his  fashion  tried  to  explain  it  all 
away.  This  affair,  however,  set  him  to  reflect- 
ing on  the  fact,  that  while  the  Federalists  had 
in  "  Fenno's  Gazette  "  an  organ  devoted  to  their 
service,  and  reaching  into  every  State,  the  party 
of  the  future  had  nothing  of  the  sort.  In  the 
following  autumn  these  meditations  bore  fruit 
in  the  shape  of  the  "  National  Gazette,"  edited 
by  Philip  Freneau,  to  whom  Jefferson  gave  the 
position  of  translating  clerk  in  the  State  De- 
partment. Thus  fortified,  Freneau,  who  was  a 
clever  man  and  a  versifier  of  some  little  talent, 
began  a  succession  of  bitter,  sometimes  of  sharp 
and  well-directed  attacks  upon  the  measures  of 
the  administration,  and  particularly  upon  Ham- 
ilton. Then  it  was  that  Hamilton,  putting  two 
and  two  together,  came  to  the  very  accurate 
conclusion  that  Jefferson  and  Madison  were  or- 
ganizing a  party  against  him,  and  had  estab- 
lished a  newspaper  in  their  interest  as  a  very 
necessary  part  of  the  plan. 

Jefferson,  meantime,  was  at  work  in  other 
directions.  He  wrote  to  Washington  more  than 
once,  deprecating  the  treasury  measures,  and 
depicting  a  state  of  popular  discontent,  and 
stirred  up  others  to  do  the  same.  At  last,  on 
a  visit  to  Virginia  during  the  summer  of  1791, 
"Washington  heard  from  the  lips  of  his  "  quon- 
dam friend,"  Colonel  Mason,  a  long  and  adverse 


142  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

criticism  upon  the  policy  of  the  administration. 
Taking  this  as  an  excuse,  perhaps  Washington 
condensed  all  that  had  been  written  or  said  into 
a  brief  summary  and  sent  it  to  Hamilton.  Here 
we  find  the  principles,  or  more  properly  the 
war-cries,  of  the  opposition  formulated  for  the 
first  time  with  some  clearness,  and  in  every  line 
we  detect  the  cunning  hand  of  the  secretary  of 
state.  Reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  this  piece 
of  criticism  .amounts  to  this :  that  Hamilton  was 
politically  a  very  bad  and  dangerous  man,  who 
had  heaped  up  a  vast  debt,  which  was  a  sore 
burden  to  the  people,  but  which  he  would  not 
let  them  pay  immediately,  notwithstanding  their 
overtaxed  condition,  but  which  he  had  contrived 
to  render  permanent ;  that  he  fostered  specula- 
tion, juggled  with  paper  money  and  the  debt 
in  order  to  influence  Congress,  where  he  main- 
tained a  corrupt  squadron  ;  and  that  he  was 
laboring  secretly  to  introduce  aristocracy  and 
monarchy.  Hamilton  dealt  with  this  diatribe 
in  a  way  very  characteristic  of  him  when  he 
kept  his  temper,  as  he  usually  did.  After  a 
few  lines  of  quiet  indignation  in  his  reply  to 
the  President,  he  proceeded  to  number  all  the 
objections  made  by  Mason,  and  then  discussed 
and  answered  each  of  them  in  his  usual  cold, 
forcible,  and  lucid  fashion,  just  as  if  he  were 
drawing  a  report  or  making  a  brief,  instead  of 


PARTY  CONTESTS  143 

repelling  gross  personal  attacks.  The  task  was 
not  difficult,  for  where  the  accusations  were  not 
contradictory  they  were  hopelessly  and  plainly 
false,  and  Washington  was  entirely  satisfied. 
Indeed,  it  must  be  confessed  that  Jefferson's 
first  declaration  of  party  principles  was  a  pretty 
poor  one.  But  it  was  better  than  anything  the 
party  by  itself  had  been  able  to  do  :  it  gave 
them  some  valuable  catchwords,  and  concen- 
trated their  efforts  on  the  ruin  of  one  man. 

Whether  this  last  assault  was  too  much  for 
his  endurance,  or  whether  the  "  National  Ga- 
zette," now  more  vituperative  than  ever,  had 
become  unbearable,  it  is  certain  that,  after  re- 
plying to  the  "  Objections  "  sent  him  by  Wash- 
ington, Hamilton  completely  lost  his  temper. 
He  descended  into  the  arena  of  party  strife, 
and  proceeded  to  answer  Freneau,  and  whip 
Jefferson  over  the  shoulders  of  his  editor.  This 
was  improper  and  undignified,  —  the  act  of  an 
angry  man,  righteously  indignant,  no  doubt,  but 
not  on  that  account  to  be  excused  for  taking 
his  high  office  into  the  dust  of  a  political  news- 
paper brawl.  There  was,  moreover,  no  need 
of  it.  Federalist  politicians  and  Federalist  ed- 
itors were  never  either  slow  or  feeble  with  pen 
or  tongue,  and  were  quite  capable  of  defend- 
ing their  chief  and  their  party.  But  Hamil- 
ton had  lost  his  temper,  and  a  ready  pen  is  a 


144  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

terrible  temptation.  Once  engaged,  he  fought 
well,  of  course,  and  it  may  be  admitted  that  he 
gained  a  temporary  advantage.  It  is  no  excuse 
to  say  that  all  the  leading  men  of  the  day  wrote 
for  the  newspapers,  and  formed  public  opinion 
in  that  way.  Hamilton  was  a  member  of  the 
cabinet,  next  to  Washington  the  most  conspicu- 
ous man  in  the  country,  and  he  had  no  right 
and  no  business  to  send  anonymous  communi- 
cations to  the  newspapers,  savagely  attacking 
one  of  his  colleagues  in  the  administration.  He 
hurt  his  assailants  badly,  no  doubt ;  he  wrote 
brilliantly;  he  gained  a  temporary  victory,  but 
in  the  eyes  of  posterity  he  injured  himself  and 
his  personal  and  official  dignity.  Jefferson,  we 
may  be  sure,  had  not  planned  to  draw  Hamil- 
ton out.  He  never  cared  for  debate  either  in 
the  newspapers  or  by  word  of  mouth.  He  had 
no  love  for  a  stricken  field,  and  had  doubtless 
believed  that  circumstances  would  keep  Hamil- 
ton silent.  He  winced  terribly  when  Hamilton 
rushed  at  him  and  publicly  denounced  him  as 
the  supporter  of  a  journal  devoted  to  attacks  on 
the  government,  whose  editor  he  provided  for 
by  public  office.  He  smarted  under  the  lash  of 
a  practiced  hand,  which  depicted  him  as  a  secret 
intriguer  against  the  treasury  measures,  which 
demolished  his  charges  and  laid  bare  all  the 
operations  of  the  financial  policy,  with  great 


PARTY  CONTESTS  145 

consequent  credit  to  its  author.  For  the  time 
being  the  "  National  Gazette  "  was  crippled  and 
the  secretary  of  state  humiliated ;  but  for  this 
poor  reward  Hamilton  had  deeply  grieved  and 
troubled  the  President,  who  had  watched  the 
well-directed  shafts  go  home,  and  who  keenly 
felt  the  injury  to  the  government  and  to  the 
country  of  such  a  quarrel,  so  conducted,  and 
between  men  occupying  such  positions.  Wash- 
ington remonstrated  with  both  by  letter,  and 
the  replies  bring  the  two  secretaries  into  strong 
contrast.  Hamilton's  letter  was  brief,  direct, 
and  manly.  He  said  little  about  his  antagonist, 
avowed  his  right  to  defend  himself,  and  pro- 
mised to  do  all  in  his  power  to  keep  the  peace 
and  hold  the  administration  together.  Jeffer- 
son's answer  was  long  and  tortuous.  He  de- 
fended himself  elaborately  against  Hamilton's 
published  attacks  with  a  kind  of  wail  in  his 
tone  which  showed  that  he  had  been  hurt ;  but 
he  devoted  most  of  his  reply  to  Washington's 
request  for  harmony  to  venomous  and  bitter 
abuse  of  his  colleague.  As  a  practical  result 
of  all  this,  Hamilton  stopped  his  attacks,  while 
Jefferson  opened  fresh  trenches  in  a  new  direc- 
tion. 

When  Congress  came  together,  Hamilton  in- 
troduced a  series  of  measures  looking  to  the 
speedy  redemption  of  the  debt.  One  was  to 


146  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

insure  the  maintenance  of  the  sinking  fund,  and 
provide  for  outstanding  certificates;  another, 
to  borrow  money  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest ; 
and  a  third,  to  levy  taxes  to  buy  up  the  six  per 
cents  as  rapidly  as  possible.  By  the  strenu- 
ous efforts  of  the  opposition,  the  last  two  were 
defeated ;  the  proposition  for  new  taxes,  some 
of  which  fell  upon  the  planters  who  were  ac- 
customed to  raise  revenue  in  the  North,  being 
particularly  distasteful.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
party  which  denounced  the  debt,  and  accused 
Hamilton  of  using  it  corruptly,  met  his  pro- 
posal to  take  all  possible  reasonable  steps  for 
its  redemption,  and,  having  done  themselves  all 
they  could  to  render  it  permanent,  they  yet 
continued  to  assail  the  secretary  for  that  very 
design. 

But  all  this  was  the  mere  disingenuousness 
of  party  warfare.  The  next  assault  planned  by 
Jefferson  and  Madison  was  a  much  more  seri- 
ous affair.  It  aimed  at  the  personal  ruin  of  the 
secretary,  and  was  intended  to  drive  him  from 
the  cabinet  and  prove  him  guilty  of  corrup- 
tion. The  attack  was  headed  by  Giles,  a  rough, 
brazen,  loud-voiced  Virginian,  fit  for  any  bad 
work,  no  matter  how  desperate.  First,  accounts 
of  one  foreign  loan  were  called  for,  then  of  all ; 
then,  when  it  appeared  that  two  loans  had  been 
consolidated  for  which  there  was  but  doubtful 


PARTY  CONTESTS  14> 

authority  in  law,  and  while  Jefferson  was  in- 
sinuating  to  Washington  that  Hamilton  had 
used  these  loans  corruptly  to  aid  the  bank, 
there  came  a  string  of  resolutions  calculated 
to  lay  bare  every  operation  of  the  treasury. 
Jefferson  and  Madison  in  this  business  made 
the  great  mistake  of  not  knowing  their  mari  be- 
fore they  fell  upon  him.  They  probably  had 
little  real  doubt  of  Hamilton's  integrity,  but 
they  thought  he  would  find  it  difficult  to  de- 
monstrate it  by  figures,  —  they  thought  that 
in  all  these  complicated  finances  there  might 
be  errors  susceptible  of  distortion  which  would 
cause  them  to  be  misconstrued,  and,  above  all, 
they  hoped  that  Hamilton  would  be  so  harassed 
that  he  would  leave  the  cabinet.  They  reck- 
oned without  their  host.  Hamilton  was  not 
only  a  man  of  spotless  integrity  in  his  vast 
financial  transactions,  but  he  was  essentially  a 
fighting  man.  When  danger  of  this  sort  came 
upon  him,  his  head  became  clearer  and  his  nerve 
greater  than  before.  He  was  no  longer  the 
party  leader  writing  anonymously  in  "  Fenno's 
Gazette :  "  he  was  the  great  minister,  called 
upon  without  warning  to  defend  himself,  his 
honor,  his  office,  and  his  department.  Now  his 
genius  for  organization  told  in  the  readiness  with 
which,  under  his  system,  everything  could  be 
accounted  for.  Keport  after  report  poured  in 


148  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

upon  Congress  until  every  operation  of  the  trea- 
sury was  displayed  to  the  public  eye  so  plainly 
that  he  who  ran  might  read.  Those  who  had 
undertaken  this  ill-starred  business  would  fain 
have  adjourned  and  left  it  all  unsettled.  But 
Hamilton  was  too  quick  for  them,  and  before 
the  session  closed  everything  had  been  exposed 
to  the  public  gaze.  The  Federalists  rejoiced,  and 
eagerly  pressed  their  advantage.  Giles  intro- 
duced resolutions  of  censure,  and  the  Federalists 
forced  a  vote  on  all  of  them.  Poor  Madison, 
who  was  preeminently  a  man  of  peace,  but  who 
had  been  dragged  into  this  as  he  was  into  all 
his  great  mistakes  by  others,  had  no  escape. 
He  was  compelled  to  go  on  record  in  favor  of 
the  resolutions  in  a  minority  so  small  that  it 
was  at  once  ludicrous  and  humiliating  when 
contrasted  with  the  grandeur  of  the  prepara- 
tion and  the  violence  of  the  abusive  declamation 
which  had  accompanied  the  whole  proceeding. 

We  know  that  the  efforts  made  by  Hamil- 
ton to  accomplish  this  feat  told  severely  on  his 
health,  and  the  event  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant in  his  career,  because  it  brought  out  so 
strongly  the  salient  features  of  his  mind  and 
character.  Hamilton  could  organize  and  disci- 
pline bodies  of  men  both  in  war  and  politics, 
but  he  was  not  a  party  manager.  He  could 
marshal  his  forces  in  debate  as  he  marshaled 


PARTY  CONTESTS  149 

his  arguments  ;  he  could  lay  out  a  policy  and 
give  directions  to  his  lieutenants,  but  he  could 
not  deal  with  the  rank  and  file.  With  his 
party  behind  him,  he  coidd  lead;  but  others 
must  manage  the  forces.  With  the  same  over- 
whelming impetuosity  with  which  he  charged  the 
Yorktown  redoubt,  he  now  rushed  upon  Giles 
and  upon  those  who  moved  the  wires  which 
made  Giles  dance.  In  the  dash  of  the  onset  we 
see  the  vehement  energy  and  strong  passionate 
nature  of  Hamilton  toiling  day  and  night,  until 
the  color  left  his  cheeks,  that  he  might  compel 
an  issue  before  Congress  adjourned.  Yet  in  all 
this  hot  enthusiasm  and  defiance  comes  out  the 
clear,  cold,  penetrating  intellect  which  without 
an  angry  word  could  draw  out  schedules  and 
balances  and  accounts,  a  long  array  of  silent 
and  convincing  figures,  and  nothing  else.  When 
at  last  the  conflict  was  over,  and  he  had  routed 
his  opponents  and  stood  flushed  with  victory, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  party  chiefs  gathered 
round  him  with  a  zealous  devotion.  The  people 
saw  that  Hamilton  had  triumphed  ;  that  he  had 
been  right  and  his  enemies  wrong ;  that  he  had 
been  clean  and  above  reproach.  But  these  long 
columns  of  figures  did  not  appeal  to  the  popular 
imagination,  and  the  masses  did  not  appreciate 
the  magnitude  of  the  battle  which  had  been 
waged.  The  leaders  in  Congress  and  elsewhere 


150  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

saw  all  this,  and  it  was  with  them  that  Ham. 
ilton  stood  highest  then  and  always.  There 
was  probably  no  one,  however,  who  appreciated 
the  situation  so  keenly  as  Jefferson.  The  most 
desperate  assault  possible  had  been  disastrously 
repulsed.  Hamilton  was  higher  than  ever  in 
the  public  esteem,  stronger  than  ever  in  the 
estimation  of  his  party,  now  rendered  more  ag- 
gressive and  active  than  before.  He  could  not 
be  driven  from  the  cabinet.  Direct  attacks 
upon  him  had  clearly  failed,  and  Jefferson  made 
no  effort  to  take  up  the  shivered  lance,  which  he 
had  placed  in  another  hand  to  use  in  the  open 
lists.  It  only  remained  to  stay  in  the  cabinet 
and  there  contend  with  Hamilton  for  supremacy 
in  guiding  the  course  of  the  government  and 
winning  the  confidence  and  trust  of  Washington* 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FOREIGN    RELATIONS    AND     THE     MAINTENANCE 
OF   THE   AUTHORITY   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

I  DO  not  propose  to  deal  here  with  the  ques- 
tion of  the  foreign  relations  of  the  United  States 
at  this  period,  for  the  subject  is  one  of  the 
broadest  scope,  and  fit  only  for  a  general  history 
in  the  most  comprehensive  sense  of  the  term. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  the  foundation  of  the 
so-called  Monroe  doctrine  was  laid  by  Washing- 
ton's proclamation  of  neutrality,  which  marked 
out  the  true  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States 
by  declaring  that  this  republic  of  the  New  World 
would  hold  itself  aloof  from  the  struggles  of 
Europe.  The  policy  thus  laid  down  was  one 
of  the  great  corner-stones  placed  by  the  wisdom 
of  Washington's  administration,  and  upon  which 
the  fabric  of  national  greatness  was  founded. 
To  convert  the  doctrine  of  the  neutrality  pro- 
clamation into  a  guiding  and  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  state  was  the  work  of  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  upon  our  foreign 
relations  during  that  period  the  history  of  the 
country  turned.  When  they  first  come  into 


152  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

prominence  during  Washington's  first  term,  they 
mark  the  beginning  of  an  important  phase  of 
our  development.  Between  the  proclamation 
of  neutrality  and  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812, 
this  country  adjusted  its  position  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  settled  its  foreign  rela- 
tions which  then  drew  the  political  lines  in  the 
United  States,  and  on  which  the  fate  of  our 
parties  hung,  and  completed  the  work  of  the 
Kevolution  by  breaking  the  fetters  of  political 
thought  as  the  war  had  severed  the  political 
bonds.  In  a  word,  for  many  years  after  the 
neutrality  proclamation,  the  country  was  en- 
gaged in  changing  its  ideas  from  those  of  colo- 
nies to  those  of  a  nation,  and  in  struggling  to 
make  itself  as  independent  mentally  as  it  was 
politically.  Into  this  broad  and  inviting  field  it 
is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  enter.  My  object 
is  merely  to  show  the  place  in  it  which  Hamil- 
ton occupied,  his  opinions  as  to  our  foreign 
relations,  and  the  part  he  took  in  shaping  our 
foreign  policy.  Above  all,  I  wish  to  depict  his 
attitude  in  regard  to  the  French  Revolution, 
which  convulsed  the  minds  of  men  throughout 
the  civilized  world  far  beyond  its  own  borders, 
far  beyond  the  regions  even  where  its  armies 
penetrated,  and  of  which  it  may  be  truthfully 
said  that  Hamilton  was  one  of  the  most  illustri* 
ous  victims  both  in  his  life  and  in  his  death. 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  153 

In  March,  1789,  our  situation  in  regard  to 
foreign  nations  was  anything  but  enviable. 
England,  with  ill  -  concealed  hatred,  held  the 
Western  posts,  and  refused,  on  account  of  the 
unpaid  debts  of  British  subjects,  to  indemnify 
us  for  the  slaves  which  had  been  carried  off 
during  the  war.  She  flouted  our  ministers,  re- 
fused to  send  a  representative  to  this  country, 
and  strove  in  every  possible  way  to  injure  our 
commerce,  of  which  she  had  so  lately  enjoyed 
a  monopoly.  Our  relations  with  the  mother 
country  were,  in  short,  as  strained  and  mutually 
offensive  as  possible.  With  France,  toward 
whom  we  felt  as  a  people  a  sincere  gratitude, 
they  were  hardly  more  favorable.  Jefferson  had 
failed  to  obtain  from  that  country  any  better 
commercial  treatment  than  was  accorded  by 
England.  With  Spain  there  was  a  chronic  quar- 
rel, and  a  dark  cloud  of  war  and  aggression 
hung  over  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Ham- 
ilton felt  that  the  first  steps  toward  placing  the 
United  States  in  the  position  which  they  ought 
to  occupy  were  the  restoration  of  their  credit  and 
reputation,  and  the  display  of  order,  strength, 
and  resources  which  this  involved.  He  rightly 
believed  that  success  and  stability  would  do 
more  than  anything  else  to  compel  the  respect 
and  consideration  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  So 
far  as  the  various  nations  were  concerned,  while 


154  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

as  an  individual  citizen  he  was  inclined  by  his 
feelings  toward  France,  as  a  statesman  he  clearly 
saw  that  all  nations  must  be  treated  alike ;  that, 
owing  to  her  geographical  situation,  America 
had  no  such  things  as  natural  alliances  and 
enmities,  but  that  at  the  same  time  on  commer- 
cial grounds  friendly  relations  with  England 
were  vastly  more  important  than  with  any  other 
nation  of  the  earth.  With  England,  too,  the 
objects  at  which  Hamilton  aimed  would  count 
for  more  than  anything  else.  Whatever  incon- 
sistencies England  may  have  been  guilty  of,  she 
has  never  swerved  in  civility  and  respect  for 
success,  strength,  and  wealth,  and  this  Hamilton 
well  knew.  But  he  did  not  reckon  on  this  alone. 
In  his  report  on  manufactures  a  cardinal  prin- 
ciple was  that  of  retaliation,  and  the  hand  he 
meant  thus  to  force  was  the  hand  of  England. 
At  the  same  time  he  regarded  the  efforts  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  various  nations,  that  is, 
in  favor  of  France  and  against  England,  on  the 
ground  of  gratitude  to  the  one  and  hatred  to 
the  other,  as  wholly  false  in  principle.  Such  a 
course  would  surely  lead  to  further  disagree- 
ments with  the  latter;  and  the  object  of  the 
United  States  was  not  to  indulge  in  sentiment, 
but  to  build  up  its  national  greatness  and  grow 
rich  by  its  commerce.  To  treat  all  nations  as 
tfhey  treated  us,  and  to  bury  the  past,  which 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  155 

should  not  be  allowed  to  hamper  the  new  gov- 
ernment, was  Hamilton's  theory.  He  had  no 
attachment  to  England,  but  rather  the  contrary. 
He  admired  the  British  constitution  as  the  best 
system  of  free  government  in  existence  ;  like  all 
his  fellow  citizens,  he  had  been  nurtured  amid 
the  English  traditions  of  law  and  government, 
and  he  had  no  question  that  English  principles 
in  respect  to  law  and  government  were,  with 
proper  modifications,  best  suited  to  the  United 
States.  Toward  France  he  felt  both  affection 
and  gratitude,  and  in  that  country  were  many 
tried  and  loved  friends  and  companions  in  arms. 
But  he  wished  the  new  republic  to  lay  aside  all 
sentiment  and  prejudice  as  well  as  all  inconven- 
ient memories,  and  to  start  fair  and  free  with 
a  view  only  to  her  own  interests,  and  a  general 
determination  to  treat  all  nations  alike  if  they 
all  behaved  equally  well ;  to  have  no  alliances, 
no  friendships,  and  no  enmities,  but  to  cut  loose 
from  all  complications  and  aim  only  at  success. 

Hamilton's  theory  as  exemplified  in  the  finan- 
cial policy  worked  well.  Evidences  of  respect 
abroad  began  to  multiply.  Washington,  through 
Gouverneur  Morris,  sounded  England  in  regard 
to  the  renewal  of  diplomatic  relations,  which 
had  been  practically  severed  since  the  day  when 
John  Adams  had  been  driven  away  from  St. 
James  by  a  stupid  insolence  which  England 


166  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

has  always  been  fond  of  displaying  toward  this 
country,  and  which  has  cost  her,  first  and  last, 
many  bitter  lessons.  The  result  of  Washing- 
ton's experiment,  backed  by  the  rapidly  grow- 
ing prosperity  of  the  country  and  the  increasing 
stability  of  the  government,  was  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  minister  to  the  United  States  in  the 
person  of  Mr.  George  Hammond.  This  gentle- 
man was  empowered  to  begin  negotiations  for  a 
commercial  treaty,  but  could  conclude  nothing. 
The  reestablishment  of  commercial  relations  on 
a  basis  something  like  reciprocity  was  still  dis- 
tant enough,  but  nevertheless  a  good  deal  had 
been  gained  by  the  mere  renewal  of  diplomatic 
intercourse.  Hammond's  negotiations  were  not 
very  fruitful,  but  they  went  on  pretty  steadily, 
and  Hamilton  took  a  considerable  share  in  them 
from  time  to  time,  more,  it  must  be  confessed, 
than  strictly  belonged  to  him  as  secretary  of  the 
treasury.  The  truth  was  that  Hamilton  had  a 
policy  for  the  new  government  in  every  direc- 
tion as  well  defined  as  in  financial  affairs,  and 
he  strove  to  put  each  and  all  into  effect.  He 
could  not  rid  himself  of  the  idea  that  he  was 
really  the  prime  minister,  a  notion  encouraged 
by  the  way  in  which  Congress  had  thrown  all 
sorts  of  questions  into  his  hands  for  decision. 
Moreover,  his  schemes  deserved  and  won  the 
confidence  of  Washington ;  and  the  result  was 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  157 

that  Jefferson,  entirely  innocent  of  clear-cut, 
sharply  defined  plans  and  policies,  and  waiting 
to  be  guided  by  events,  found  himself,  much 
oftener  than  was  pleasant,  pushed  aside,  ridden 
over,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Hammond,  more  or 
less  interfered  with. 

While  the  United  States  were  thus  making 
their  way  into  the  family  of  nations  the  French 
Revolution'  began,  and  in  a  few  years  the  newly 
launched  ship  of  the  young  republic  was  tossing 
on  the  waves  of  the  terrible  storm  which  found 
its  centre  in  Paris.  The  first  news  of  the  great 
movement  in  France  was  received  in  this  coun- 
try with  universal  pleasure  and  delight  by  men 
of  all  shades  of  political  belief.  As  to  the  bene- 
fits of  a  free  constitution  in  a  country  toward 
which  we  felt  so  warmly,  all  persons — the  ultra- 
Federalist  and  the  radical  opponent  of  the  ad- 
ministration alike  —  were  agreed  and  had  a 
common  gratification.  But  the  rapid  changes 
rolled  on,  and  one  event  succeeded  another, 
each  with  terrible  logic  more  dreadful  than  the 
last,  and  all  hurrying  to  the  worst  extremes  of 
violence.  When  reform  became  revolution,  rev- 
olution anarchy,  and  redress  revenge,  —  when 
hot-blooded  killings  in  the  street  changed  to 
cold-blooded  massacre  and  cowardly  murder  in 
the  prison  and  the  palace,  culminating  at  last  in 
the  execution  of  the  king  and  the  daily  slaugh- 


158  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ter  of  the  guillotine,  —  then  public  opinion  in 
America  shifted.  First  the  timid  and  suspicious 
began  to  doubt,  then  the  more  cautious  began  to 
fear,  then  such  men  as  Washington  and  Ham- 
ilton lost  sympathy  with  a  battle  for  freedom 
fought  in  this  wise,  and  the  latter  rebelled 
against  comparing  the  French  Revolution  with 
our  own,  saying,  "  The  one  is  liberty,  the  other 
licentiousness."  The  general  enthusiasm  with 
which  the  French  Revolution  had  been  greeted 
faded  away ;  but  while  that  conflict  became  dis- 
tasteful to  the  mass  of  the  people  and  an  ob- 
ject of  suspicion  and  dislike  to  the  Federalists, 
the  revolutionary  fever  strongly  infected  certain 
elements  which  predominated  among  the  ene- 
mies of  the  administration.  As  one  side  headed 
by  Washington  and  Hamilton  cooled  towards 
France,  the  other  side  grew  proportionately  hot- 
ter in  admiration  and  love  for  the  principles  of 
the  revolution,  just  then  becoming  rather  wild 
and  uncertain.  This  widening  rift  between  two 
bodies  of  public  opinion  was  certain  before  long 
to  breed  a  party  issue.  So  long  as  men  watched 
events  in  Paris  and  came  to  one  conclusion  or 
another  as  a  matter  of  abstract  theory,  no  harm 
was  done,  but  sooner  or  later  these  conclusions 
would  be  brought  to  the  touchstone  of  practical 
decision,  and  then  the  parties  which  had  been 
evoked  by  the  revolution  would  begin  a  fierce 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  159 

conflict.  Early  in  April,  1793,  the  news  arrived 
that  war  had  been  declared  between  England 
and  France,  and  that  a  new  minister  from  the 
terrible  republic  had  reached  Charleston.  The 
decisive  moment  had  come,  and  Hamilton  sent 
post-haste  for  Washington,  who  was  at  Mount 
Vernon.  When  the  President  reached  Phila- 
delphia, he  found  his  two  secretaries  prepared 
to  meet  the  crisis,  the  gravity  of  which  no  mem- 
ber of  the  administration  doubted,  but  prepared 
to  meet  it  in  ways  very  different  and  highly 
characteristic  of  the  two  men.  Jefferson  loved 
France  and  the  ideas  of  the  revolution,  and  he 
hated  England ;  but  he  also  dreaded  war  and 
had  no  desire  to  have  the  United  States  drawn 
into  hostilities.  Under  these  circumstances  he 
was  unable  to  make  up  his  mind  as  to  any  defi- 
nite plan.  In  order  therefore  to  get,  if  possi- 
ble, an  expression  of  public  opinion  and  thereby 
come  to  a  determination  and  be  rid  of  responsi- 
bility, he  proposed  to  call  Congress  at  once  in 
extra  session.  It  is  probable  that  he  saw  an 
opportunity  to  make  party  capital  by  the  agita- 
tion of  this  subject  in  debate,  but  a  summons  to 
Congress  was  at  all  events  the  only  suggestion 
he  had  to  offer  to  Washington. 

Hamilton  on  the  other  hand  cared  for  neither 
England  nor  France,  except  so  far  as  he  loathed 
the  bloody  anarchy  of  the  one  and  respected  the 


160  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

stability  and  order  of  the  other.  His  thoughts 
were  fixed  on  the  United  States,  unbiased  by  a 
sentiment  for  or  against  any  other  nation.  For 
the  United  States  he  dreaded  war  almost  as 
much  as  Jefferson,  but  unlike  his  colleague  he 
had  not  the  slightest  doubt  as  to  the  position 
to  be  taken  at  that  trying  moment,  and  he  had 
fully  made  up  his  mind  as  to  the  true  policy  to 
be  adopted.  Hamilton  had  no  desire  to  shift 
the  responsibility  of  a  duty  which  he  conceived 
to  belong  to  the  executive,  and  which  he  also 
thought  would  be  far  safer  in  the  hands  of 
Washington  than  if  it  were  tossed  about  in  a 
legislative  body.  He  had  no  wish,  therefore,  to 
have  Congress  called  together ;  but  he  prepared 
a  series  of  questions  embodying  his  views,  and 
these  he  submitted  to  Washington,  who  laid 
them  before  the  cabinet.  The  policy  outlined 
by  these  questions  was  the  maintenance  of  a 
strong,  strict,  and  genuine  neutrality  by  the 
United  States,  to  which  the  utmost  publicity 
should  be  given,  and  then  a  careful  considera- 
tion of  our  relations  with  France,  in  order  that 
the  past  might  not  be  so  construed  as  to  en- 
tangle us  with  the  fortunes  and  conflicts  of  the 
revolution,  and  in  that  way  drag  us  from  our 
true  position  of  absolute  neutrality  and  conse- 
quent peace.  The  first  question,  as  to  issuing 
a  declaration  of  neutrality,  was  carried  in  the 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    161 

affirmative,  and  the  proclamation  to  that  effect 
soon  appeared.  This  was  really  the  central 
point  of  the  whole  policy  of  Washington  and 
Hamilton,  and  was  one  of  the  great  landmarks 
established  by  the  Federalists  for  the  guidance 
of  the  republic.  There  is  no  stronger  exam- 
ple of  the  influence  of  the  Federalists  under  the 
lead  of  Washington  upon  the  history  of  the  coun- 
try than  this  famous  proclamation,  and  in  no  one 
respect  did  the  personality  of  Hamilton  impress 
itself  more  directly  on  the  future  of  the  United 
States.  So  little  was  it  understood  at  the  time 
that  when  thirty  years  later  the  same  principle, 
in  an  extended  form,  was  enunciated  by  Mr. 
Monroe's  administration,  it  was  hailed  as  a  new 
doctrine,  and  incorporated  as  a  leading  article 
in  the  political  creed  of  the  United  States. 
When  adopted  and  put  forth  by  Washington, 
this  truism  of  to-day  was  hardly  appreciated. 
The  colonial  spirit,  which  was  the  spirit  of  the 
past,  made  it  seem  impossible  that  the  United 
States  should  be  wholly  apart  from  the  affairs 
of  Europe.  The  Federalists  acted  on  the  prin- 
ciple thus  laid  down  while  they  held  power, 
maintaining  a  bold  and  strong  neutrality,  and 
ready  to  strike  the  first  nation,  no  matter  which 
it  was,  that  dared  infringe  it.  After  the  fall 
of  the  Federalists  this  doctrine  slipped  out  of 
sight.  For  a  vigorous  neutrality,  ever  on  the 


162  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

alert  and  ready  for  war,  was  substituted  a  timid, 
exasperating  policy  of  peace  protected  by  com- 
mercial warfare.  Ten  years  of  bitter  political 
conflict,  including  three  years  of  foreign  war, 
was  the  result,  and  by  this  harsh  process  the 
colonial  spirit  was  finally  exorcised.  Then  the 
national  foreign  policy,  formulated,  devised,  and 
adopted  by  Washington  and  Hamilton,  was  pop- 
ularly accepted  under  the  administration  of 
Monroe. 

The  primary  question  of  neutrality  was  set- 
tled by  the  proclamation.  It  then  became  neces- 
sary to  fix  the  character  of  this  neutrality  by 
a  careful  determination  of  our  attitude  towards 
the  most  aggressive,  active,  and  dangerous  of 
the  belligerents,  —  the  French  republic.  The 
second  point  therefore  came  on  the  reception  of 
the  minister  of  France,  which  was  settled  in  the 
affirmative.  Then  followed  a  series  of  perplex- 
ing questions  as  to  receiving  the  minister  with 
or  without  qualifications,  and  as  to  our  relations 
to  France  under  existing  treaties.  Up  to  this 
point  the  cabinet  had  succeeded  in  reaching  an 
agreement,  but  now  they  diverged  widely.  Ham- 
ilton wished  it  distinctly  understood  that  by  re- 
ceiving the  French  minister  the  United  States 
did  not  admit  that  the  treaties  were  now  bind- 
ing in  their  full  extent.  These  treaties  pro- 
vided, of  course,  for  the  payment  of  our  debt  to 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    163 

France,  and  also  for  the  guarantee  of  the  French 
possessions  on  this  continent,  and  for  a  defen- 
sive alliance.  Hamilton,  who  at  the  outset  had 
done  his  best  to  expedite  payments  to  the  new 
government,  had  more  recently  begun  to  hold 
back.  He  now  said  that  while  there  was  no 
doubt  of  the  general  rule  of  international  law, 
that  for  treaty  purposes  the  existing  government 
was  to  a  foreign  nation  the  same  as  any  pre- 
decessor, yet  this  rule,  like  all  others,  required 
reasonable  construction.  The  change  of  govern- 
ment in  France,  he  added,  was  of  such  a  nature 
as  to  alter  every  circumstance  under  which  and 
for  which  the  treaties  had  been  made,  and  there- 
fore the  United  States  had  the  right  to  renounce 
them.  Moreover,  everything  was  so  uncertain 
and  shifting  in  France  that  to  live  up  to  the 
treaties  with  the  present  government  might  in  a 
few  months  amount  to  a  cause  of  war  with  its 
successor.  Again,  the  war  was  not  defensive, 
and  so  Hamilton  concluded  that  all  this  should 
be  plainly  stated  to  the  minister,  so  that  he 
might  understand  that  we  did  not  intend  to  be 
bound  by  the  treaties.  Hamilton's  construction 
was,  at  least,  that  of  the  French  Convention, 
which  had  just  annulled  a  clause  in  one  of  the 
treaties,  but  it  was  also  the  sound  and  states- 
manlike view.  His  arguments  go  to  great  length, 
and  are  clear  and  acute,  as  usual,  but  the  central 


164  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

idea  was  as  simple  as  it  was  wise.  The  French 
treaties  were  legacies  of  the  past.  They  were 
colonial  in  spirit  and  in  fact.  The  opportunity 
had  now  come  to  be  rid  of  them  legally  and 
fairly.  Hamilton's  entire  policy  was  to  take  im- 
mediate advantage  of  the  opportunity,  cut  loose 
from  these  entangling  bonds,  and  thus  assume 
in  foreign  affairs  a  wholly  free  and  thoroughly 
national  position.  Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  for  a  rigid  construction  of  the  law  of  nations 
and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  same  close  con- 
nection with  the  republic  as  with  the  monarchy, 
always  barring  actual  war. 

These  contending  views,  however,  and  a  de- 
cision upon  them,  were  soon  pushed  aside  by 
the  appearance  in  person  of  Genet,  the  minister 
himself,  who  raised  a  series  of  difficult  and  exas- 
perating questions  of  the  most  practical  kind  so 
quickly  that  there  was  no  time  to  consider  gen- 
eral policies.  The  administration  found  enough 
to  do  in  checking  Genet's  mischief  without 
coming  to  any  conclusion  as  to  the  qualifica- 
tions with  which  he  should  be  received,  or  as 
to  the  statements  which  should  be  made  to  him 
with  reference  to  the  attitude  of  the  United 
States  in  regard  to  the  treaties.  The  policy 
of  the  United  States  toward  France  was,  indeed, 
settled  during  these  contests  with  her  represen- 
tative, and  ultimately  according  to  Hamilton's 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    165 

doctrines,  but  it  was  done  bit  by  bit,  in  sore 
vexation  of  spirit,  and  not  broadly,  comprehen- 
sively, and  quietly. 

Indeed,  from  the  time  when  Genet  came  upon 
the  scene,  a  settlement  in  the  latter  fashion  was 
out  of  the  question.  The  new  minister  was  an 
excitable,  light-headed  Frenchman,  maddened 
by  the  wild  ideas  of  Paris.  He  rushed  from 
one  excess  to  another  from  the  day  of  his  ar- 
rival until  that  on  which  his  successor  appeared, 
and  he  endeavored  to  raise  about  him  a  party 
to  overthrow  the  administration.  His  first  act 
was  to  fit  out  privateers  at  Charleston,  and 
thence  proceed  with  a  sort  of  triumphal  pro- 
cession northward  to  Philadelphia.  Difficulties 
now  gathered  thickly  about  the  cabinet.  The 
fitting  out  of  privateers  and  the  capture  of  prizes 
by  these  privateers,  as  well  as  the  seizure  of 
British  vessels  within  our  waters,  all  leading  to 
expostulation  and  demands  for  redress  on  the 
part  of  the  English  minister,  confronted  the 
administration  in  a  constant  succession  of  cases. 
Hamilton,  whose  policy  was  not  neutrality  with 
a  covert  leaning  to  one  side,  but  a  genuine  neu- 
trality treating  all  alike,  took  strong  ground  in 
favor  of  at  once  giving  up  the  prize  made  by 
a  French  ship  of  war  within  our  waters.  He 
also  urged  the  immediate  stoppage,  by  all  the 
force  of  the  government,  of  the  enlistment  of  sea- 


166  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

men  and  fitting  out  of  privateers  by  the  French 
in  our  ports,  and  the  surrender  of  all  prizes  of 
such  privateers,  or,  if  restoration  was  impos- 
sible, then  compensation  on  our  part  to  the 
owners  wherever  we  had  failed  in  our  duty  as 
a  neutral.  The  first  point  prevailed  at  once. 
The  third  was  resisted  by  Jefferson  as  too  much 
in  favor  of  England,  and  as  amounting  to  re- 
prisal. For  a  time  decision  on  this  point  was 
suspended,  but  ultimately  Hamilton's  view  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  Washington.  On  the 
fitting  out  of  privateers  a  long  struggle  ensued 
between  the  French  minister  and  the  adminis- 
tration. Here  a  privateer  would  be  stopped, 
and  there  one  would  escape.  Americans  were 
arrested  and  tried  for  infractions  of  neutrality 
by  enlisting  on  the  French  privateers ;  and  at 
last  French  consuls,  who  were  undertaking  to 
govern  in  this  country  as  their  fellows  did  in 
the  states  of  Europe  bordering  on  the  terrible 
republic,  were  deposed  from  office  and  deprived 
of  the  right  to  exercise  their  functions.  This 
fitting  out  of  privateers  finally  culminated  in 
the  case  of  the  Little  Sarah,  sent  forth  from 
Philadelphia  in  flagrant  contempt  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  beneath  the  very  eyes  of  the  cabi- 
net. Hamilton  and  Knox  urged  strongly  and 
characteristically  the  duty  of  placing  a  battery 
on  one  of  the  islands,  and  of  firing  upon  the 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    167 

privateer  if  she  attempted  to  escape.  Thanks 
to  Jefferson,  however,  who  believed,  or  pre- 
tended to  believe,  that  Genet  had  promised  not 
to  let  the  vessel  go,  and  who  was  in  a  tremor 
at  the  idea  of  joining  in  "  the  combination  of 
kings  "  and  getting  into  war  with  France,  Ham- 
ilton's plan  was  not  carried  out,  the  militia 
were  withdrawn,  and  Genet  sent  the  privateer 
at  once  to  sea.  Washington  came  back  in  a 
state  of  indignation,  and  Jefferson  found  him- 
self so  thoroughly  uncomfortable  that  he  now 
seriously  thought  of  resignation. 

In  other  quarters  Genet  was  equally  active. 
He  made  a  continuous  effort  to  get  all  the 
money  due  to  France.  He  anticipated  payments 
so  far  as  he  could  and  then  asked  for  more,  and 
almost  insisted  that  he  should  receive  the  whole 
amount  either  in  money  or  provisions.  But  in 
the  domain  of  the  treasury  Hamilton  was  mas- 
ter and  unrestrained.  Genet's  loud  demands 
passed  idly  by.  The  secretary  paid  him  what 
was  due,  allowed  him  a  reasonable  anticipation, 
and  could  not  be  moved  to  do  more.  When 
the  Frenchman  threatened  to  give  notes  on  the 
United  States  for  what  he  wanted,  in  order  to 
fit  out  privateers  and  illegal  armaments  in  the 
Southwest  against  Spain,  Hamilton  gave  him  to 
understand  that  he  might  draw  if  he  so  pleased, 
but  that  his  drafts  would  not  be  honored.  It  is 


168  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

refreshing,  amid  the  bewildering  complications 
of  that  confused  time,  to  see  the  vain  beating  of 
the  Frenchman  at  the  doors  of  the  treasury,  and 
the  perfect  success  of  Hamilton's  cool,  unalter- 
able attitude. 

Genet,  however,  made  even  more  trouble  for 
the  administration  in  our  own  politics  than  he 
did  in  the  management  of  foreign  relations. 
The  sober  and  intelligent  opinion  of  the  country 
had  turned  away  in  disgust  from  the  excesses 
of  the  French  Revolution,  but  this  opinion  was 
silent  and  observant,  and  as  yet  inactive.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  thoughtless  and  careless, 
the  rabble  in  the  larger  cities,  the  foreign  refu- 
gees from  England  and  Ireland,  and  the  more 
violent  elements  of  the  opposition  were  infected 
by  the  excitement  of  the  French.  In  contem- 
plating the  objects  of  the  movement  in  Europe, 
they  overlooked  the  terrible  means  employed, 
and  allowed  their  reason  to  be  confused  by  the 
extravagant  jargon  of  the  new  republic.  The 
noise  and  enthusiasm  were  therefore  with  Genet. 
Banquets  and  processions,  red  caps  and  demo- 
cratic societies,  and  the  ravings  of  Freneau  and 
Bache  in  their  newspapers,  all  brought  the  half- 
crazed  Frenchman  to  believe  that  the  people 
were  with  him,  and  that  through  them  he  could 
force  the  government  to  do  his  pleasure.  This 
agitation  became  so  violent  that  Hamilton  felt 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    169 

it  to  be  necessary  to  evoke  and  give  a  lead  to 
the  opposite  sentiment ;  and  in  the  summer  of 
1793  he  published  a  series  of  essays,  signed 
"Pacificus,"  defending  the  proclamation  and 
the  policy  of  the  administration.  These  papers, 
written  in  Hamilton's  clear,  convincing  fashion, 
served  their  purpose  of  awakening  the  better 
part  of  the  community  to  the  gravity  of  the 
situation,  and  began  the  work  of  rallying  the 
friends  of  the  government  to  its  active  support. 
Calmly  but  steadily  the  administration  persisted 
in  carrying  out  its  policy,  despite  every  obsta- 
cle, foreign  or  domestic,  and  in  the  neutrality 
rules  of  August  they  laid  down  the  principles 
of  Washington  and  Hamilton  as  those  by  which 
they  meant  to  stand,  and  by  which  the  country 
should  be  guided  in  its  foreign  relations. 

Genet's  language  and  the  tone  of  his  letters 
increased  continually  in  violence,  and  became 
at  last  so  intolerable  that  the  cabinet  agreed  to 
send  his  correspondence  to  Paris  and  ask  for 
his  recall.  It  was  also  resolved  to  furnish  him 
with  copies  of  this  correspondence  and  of  the 
demand  for  recall.  Jefferson,  whose  private 
intercourse  with  Genet  had  been  very  different 
from  his  official  attitude,  warmly  opposed  this 
disclosure,  fearing  that  it  would  lead  to  an 
outbreak.  Hamilton,  on  the  contrary,  with  all 
his  fighting  qualities  now  thoroughly  aroused, 


170  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

wanted  to  go  much  farther.  He  wished  in  the 
first  place  that  the  recall  should  be  made  in 
sharp  and  peremptory  terms.  He  advocated, 
also,  the  immediate  publication  of  all  the  cor- 
respondence, and  a  direct  appeal  to  the  peo- 
ple. To  this  proposition  Washington  inclined, 
but  Jefferson  succeeded  in  defeating  it.  Genet, 
however,  soon  made  the  appeal  himself,  by  pub- 
lishing a  letter  which  raised  a  direct  issue  be- 
tween the  President  and  himself.  The  tide  of 
public  sentiment  now  turned  strongly.  The  rul- 
ing elements  in  the  community  came  forward, 
the  administration  found  itself  supported,  the 
armaments  in  the  West  were  checked,  and  the 
French  consuls  brought  to  terms  or  deposed. 
Again  Hamilton  and  Washington  wished  to  go 
farther  and  suspend  Genet  from  the  exercise 
of  his  functions,  and  again  Jefferson  checked 
and  prevented  decisive  action.  The  result  was 
that  Genet  went  on  for  a  few  months  longer  in- 
sulting our  government,  and  doing  a  good  work 
in  stimulating  the  public  resentment  against 
France,  but  his  power  for  mischief  ended  when 
he  appealed  to  the  people  against  Washington. 

Hamilton's  course  in  all  these  complications 
is  highly  characteristic.  After  carefully  watch- 
ing events  in  Europe,  he  advocated,  when  war 
was  declared,  a  sharply  defined  and  strict  neu- 
trality, and  then  a  firm  but  cautious  severance 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    171 

of  all  the  entangling  bonds  which  held  us  to 
France.  But  when  Genet  appeared  with  insults 
and  aggressions,  instead  of  negotiations  and  dis- 
cussions, Hamilton,  while  still  urging  the  rigid 
enforcement  of  a  genuine  neutrality,  wished  to 
lay  aside  diplomacy  with  the  French  minister, 
and  rebuke  him  openly  and  severely.  He  had, 
moreover,  no  desire  for  the  assistance  of  Con- 
gress, but  preferred  to  have  the  Executive  deal 
with  the  whole  matter  and  meet  every  compli- 
cation as  it  arose.  Jefferson  acted  simply  as  a 
drag  on  the  policy  of  his  colleague,  which,  never- 
theless, finally  prevailed  at  every  point ;  and  it 
is  perhaps  in  some  degree  due  to  the  opposition 
of  the  secretary  of  state  that  the  administration 
came  through  all  these  trials  so  successfully. 
Washington  sympathized  with  Hamilton's  views 
and  ultimately  gave  his  approval  to  them  all. 
When  Washington  was  angry,  —  as  he  was  on 
one  or  two  occasions  in  this  eventful  summer,  — • 
he  was  to  the  full  as  combative  as  Hamilton. 
It  is  very  conceivable  that  there  were  moments 
when  they  might  have  moved  too  fast  and  struck 
too  hard,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  persevering 
resistance  of  Jefferson.  But,  however  this  may 
have  been,  the  policy  of  a  strong  and  impartial 
neutrality  triumphed  and  was  put  in  practice. 
At  every  step  the  two  secretaries  went  farther 
apart,  the  one  pushing  on  the  successful  policy, 


172  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  other  holding  back,  clinging  to  the  French 
treaties,  and  professing  that  everything,  neutral- 
ity and  all,  depended  on  the  sanction  of  Congress. 
The  summoning  of  that  body  was  another  point 
on  which  Jefferson  had  suffered  defeat,  and  all 
this,  joined  to  the  false  position  in  which  he  was 
placed,  by  holding  one  language  officially,  and 
another  privately  to  Genet,  by  taking  one  atti- 
tude with  his  party  friends  and  another  in  the 
cabinet,  led  to  his  resignation,  which  he  with 
reluctance  deferred  until  the  assembling  of  Con- 
gress. 

When  that  body  came  together,  the  wisdom 
of  not  calling  it  before  was  plainly  manifest. 
Genet  had  succeeded  in  one  thing.  He  had 
created  a  party  issue,  and  had  given  a  definite 
object  to  the  motley  masses  of  the  opposition. 
The  financial  policy  dropped  out  of  sight,  and 
the  now  united  opponents  of  the  administration 
fell  with  a  swoop  upon  our  foreign  relations. 
Everything  conspired  to  help  them.  While  our 
government  was  trying  to  preserve  neutrality 
and  keep  the  country  out  of  the  current  of  the 
French  Eevolution,  Great  Britain  had  begun 
that  course  of  arrogant,  aggressive  interference 
with  our  commerce  which  was  perhaps  the 
stupidest  blunder  she  made  in  her  protracted 
struggle  with  France,  and  which  continued  until 
it  produced  war  in  1812.  This  conduct  gave 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    173 

the  opposition  precisely  the  handle  they  wanted. 
Then,  too,  Jefferson  was  enabled,  just  before  he 
left  office,  to  map  out  the  course  to  be  pursued 
by  sending  in  to  Congress  all  his  correspondence 
with  Genet  and  Hammond,  and  a  report  on  our 
commerce  which  indicated  that  policy  of  com- 
mercial warfare  destined  in  later  years  to  be- 
come such  a  curse  to  the  country.  Hamilton, 
who  appreciated  the  party  purposes  to  be  gained 
by  this,  opposed  the  transmission  of  the  Ham- 
mond correspondence ;  but  Washington,  who 
always  rose  above  party,  rightly  decided  that 
everything  must  go  in. 

In  his  dealings  with  Genet,  Jefferson  had  been 
under  the  supervision  of  the  cabinet,  and  his 
work  was  therefore  spirited  and  strong,  while 
with  Hammond  he  needed  no  incentive  to  take 
a  bold  attitude.  The  correspondence  therefore, 
as  a  whole,  was  vigorous  in  tone,  and  having  all 
the  ability  for  which  Jefferson  was  conspicuous 
in  letter-writing,  deserves  a  high  rank  among 
our  state  papers.  Invigorated  by  their  leader's 
success,  the  opposition  at  once  took  up  the  line 
he  had  marked  out  in  his  commercial  report,  — 
which  was  by  no  means  a  very  able  document, 
• — and  Madison  introduced  resolutions  to  estab- 
lish duties  against  nations  not  in  treaty  with  us. 
Hamilton  knew  that  the  more  eminent  leaders 
on  his  side  would  meet  this  question  in  their 


174  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

own  way,  but  this  did  not  content  him.  He 
could  not  reply  to  Madison  personally,  but  he 
determined  to  do  it  through  the  mouth  of  an- 
other. He  therefore  equipped  his  friend,  Mr. 
Smith  of  South  Carolina,  with  a  speech,  and 
in  this  way  met  Madison  at  the  outset  of  the 
undertaking.  Smith's  reply,  thus  provided,  was 
strong  and  effective.  The  secretary  lifted  the 
question  at  once  out  of  the  confusion  of  for- 
eign politics,  and  placed  it  on  purely  commercial 
grounds,  arguing  against  the  resolution  on  his 
constant  principles  that  in  trade  this  country 
should  know  neither  friend  nor  enemy,  but  be 
governed  wholly  by  its  interests.  The  argu- 
ment was  unanswerable,  but  the  House  passed 
the  resolution  against  which  it  was  directed. 
To  the  second  resolution  Nicholas  offered  an 
amendment,  naming  England  as  the  object  of 
the  hostile  discrimination ;  but  his  own  party 
was  not  ripe  for  this  step,  and  the  whole  matter 
was  postponed.  Then  came  a  fresh  and  worse 
aggression  on  the  part  of  England  in  the  form 
of  an  order  in  council  to  seize  all  vessels  loaded 
with  French  produce.  As  ready  to  resent  at- 
tack from  one  quarter  as  from  another,  Hamil- 
ton declared  this  order  an  outrage,  and  urged 
the  fortification  of  the  seaports  and  the  imme- 
diate raising  of  troops.  The  Federalists  in  the 
House,  adhering  like  their  leaders  to  the  doc- 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    175 

trines  laid  down  by  Washington,  sprang  forward 
with  strong  measures  for  an  army,  a  navy,  and 
an  embargo,  in  order  to  prepare  the  country  for 
war,  which  seemed  indeed  close  at  hand.  The 
opposition,  always  prodigal  heretofore  of  brave 
words,  now  held  back,  and  stoutly  resisted  prac- 
tical fighting  measures,  opposing  particularly 
the  bill  to  establish  a  navy,  which  subsequently 
became  law.  They  were  ready  enough  for  party 
purposes  to  declaim  against  England,  to  talk 
war  and  yet  keep  the  peace.  They  were  quite 
prepared  to  sequestrate  debts,  —  a  piece  of  swin- 
dling denounced  by  Hamilton,  —  and  be  as  of- 
fensive as  possible  to  England,  but  they  were 
not  half  so  ready  to  fight  with  their  kinsmen  as 
were  the  "  British  "  Federalists.  It  was  plain 
that  the  country  was  drifting  rapidly  into  war, 
which  Washington  saw  clearly  would  be  most 
perilous  to  the  fortunes  of  the  young  nation. 
Hamilton's  idea  of  a  special  mission  to  England 
met,  therefore,  with  the  warm  approval  of  Wash- 
ington, who  at  once  turned  to  his  secretary  of 
the  treasury  as  the  fittest  man  for  this  deli- 
cate and  important  task,  an  opinion  in  which  he 
was  fully  sustained  by  the  Federalist  leaders. 
But  the  Virginia  party,  headed  by  Madison  and 
Monroe,  greatly  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  this 
appointment,  made  an  active  and  bitter  resist- 
ance. Washington,  anxious  above  all  things  for 


176  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  success  of  the  mission,  and  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  country  from  being  torn  with  faction  in 
the  face  of  these  foreign  troubles,  gave  up  his 
first  choice  and  sent  Jay,  at  the  urgent  recom- 
mendation of  Hamilton  himself.  The  opposi- 
tion in  the  Senate  was  bitter,  but  the  nomi- 
nation was  confirmed;  and  Jay's  instructions, 
drawn  in  outline  by  Hamilton,  were  toned  down 
and  then  adopted  by  the  cabinet.  There  are  few 
acts  in  our  history  which  show  greater  force, 
courage,  and  address  than  were  displayed  by 
Washington  and  Hamilton  in  carrying  through 
this  appointment  despite  every  obstacle  and  the 
most  determined  opposition  which,  even  while  it 
acquiesced  in  the  selection  of  the  envoy,  sought 
by  every  means  to  hamper  him  and  precipi- 
tate war.  Under  the  circumstances  it  must  be 
admitted  that  Washington  was  judicious.  Yet 
Hamilton  would  undoubtedly  have  made  a  bet- 
ter treaty,  and  one  more  satisfactory  to  the 
country  than  that  obtained  by  Jay.  With  all 
the  senseless  clamor  about  his  British  sympa- 
thies, Hamilton  would  have  aimed  to  get  as 
much  as  possible  from  England  by  taking  a 
high  tone  in  the  negotiation.  This  was  shown 
by  his  draft  of  instructions,  which  were  modified 
by  the  cabinet,  in  the  direction  of  greater  conces- 
sions to  the  English  demands.  He  appreciated 
as  entirely  as  any  one  the  necessity  of  peace, 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    177 

and  had  plenty  of  tact  and  address,  but  he  was 
far  firmer,  bolder,  and  more  audacious  than  Jay, 
and  these  were  the  very  qualities  which  were 
needed.  The  Jeffersonians  were  justly  alarmed. 
If  Hamilton  made  a  successful  treaty  he  would 
be  stronger  and  more  popular  than  ever,  and 
it  would  all  redound  to  the  credit  of  his  party 
and  to  his  own  dreaded  influence.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  should  make  a  treaty  which  con- 
ceded much  to  England,  he  would  probably  force 
it  through  the  Senate,  and  we  should  then  be 
closer  to  England  and  farther  than  ever  from 
France.  'With  these  views  the  outcry  against 
Hamilton  was  started.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  by  the  most  virulent  resistance  the  op-- 
position  could  have  done  much  harm,  but  it  was 
possible  that  they  might,  and  therefore  Wash, 
ington  prudently  decided  as  he  did.  At  all 
events,  the  appointment  of  Jay,  a  more  concil- 
iatory policy  on  the  part  of  England,  and  the 
appearance  of  Fauchet  to  take  Genet's  place, 
brought  an  interval  of  calm  in  our  foreign  diffi- 
culties, and  permitted  the  administration  to  con- 
gratulate itself  on  the  skill  with  which  it  had 
steered  through  the  perils  and  complications  of 
the  past  six  months. 

We  have  already  seen  the  tendency  of  Ham- 
ilton in  mind  and  temperament  to  distrust  a 
pure  democracy,  and  to  have  faith  only  in  a 


178  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

strong  government  and  in  the  influence  and 
power  of  the  upper  classes,  even  if  those  classes 
did  not  find,  as  he  thought  they  should,  direct 
recognition  in  the  Constitution.  This  tendency 
was  turned  into  settled  conviction  as  a  matter 
of  general  principle  by  the  spectacle  presented 
to  his  observation  in  Paris.  When  the  matter, 
however,  was  brought  directly  home  to  him  by 
Genet,  by  the  popular  support  of  France,  and 
by  the  wild  talk  of  the  opposition  press  and 
speakers,  Hamilton  passed  rapidly  from  the  gen- 
eral to  the  particular,  and  began  to  believe  not 
only  that  pure  democracy  was  abstractly  peril- 
ous, but  that  there  were  in  this  country,  as  in 
France,  elements  which  considered  democracy 
and  anarchy  as  convertible  terms,  and  were  bent 
on  producing  the  latter. 

In  what  he  called  the  "  political  putrefaction  " 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the  disturbances  of  the 
western  region  of  that  State,  Hamilton  found, 
as  he  thought,  a  practical  manifestation  of  the 
justice  of  his  views  as  to  the  dangerous  elements 
in  our  population.  At  last,  too,  the  time  had 
come  when  a  pacific  policy  towards  the  malcon- 
tents was  plainly  impossible,  and  Hamilton  was 
allowed  to  deal  with  what  he  deemed  the  ele- 
ments of  anarchy  as  he  thought  they  should  be 
dealt  with,  for  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  Ham« 
ilton,  for  this  contingency  also,  had  a  policy, 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    179 

obvious  and  simple  enough,  it  may  be  admitted, 
but  still  well-defined  and  thorough  in  details. 
The  trouble  had,  in  truth,  been  for  some  years 
coming  to  a  head.  The  only  serious  criticism 
of  Hamilton's  financial  policy  is  that  it  was 
too  strong,  that  it  strained  the  new  fabric  too 
severely,  and  this  criticism  always  seeks  proof 
in  the  excise  law,  which  had  been  rendered  ne- 
cessary by  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts. 
Apart  from  the  unanswerable  economic  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  taxing  spirits,  Hamilton  be- 
lieved that  unless  the  government  could  enact 
and  enforce  such  a  proper  law  the  system  of  the 
Constitution  was  really  worthless.  The  need  of 
revenue  carried  the  Excise  Bill  through  Con- 
gress, in  1791,  despite  much  bitter  opposition. 
Its  passage  was  the  signal  for  the  immediate 
display  of  a  lawless  and  riotous  temper  in  west- 
ern Pennsylvania,  where  the  manufacture  of 
whiskey  was  chiefly  carried  on,  and  thence  it 
spread  rapidly  through  the  similar  regions  of 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  At  the  next  ses- 
sion, amendments  perfected  and  modified  the 
obnoxious  law,  while  Hamilton  devised  every 
method  to  render  its  execution  as  easy  as  pos- 
sible. 

Still  the  disorders  went  on,  until  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1792  they  reached  such  a  point  that 
Hamilton,  tired  of  the  dilatory  and  ineffective 


180  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

processes  of  law,  thought  the  moment  had  come 
for  the  direct  and  decisive  application  of  force. 
Washington,  however,  was  not  ready  for  ex» 
treme  measures,  and  so  Hamilton  drafted  a 
proclamation,  which  Washington  sent  to  Jeffer- 
son, who  countersigned  it,  declaring  privately 
that  he  wholly  disapproved  it.  The  proclama- 
tion and  Washington's  journey  through  the 
South  had  a  good  effect,  and  the  disorder  sub- 
sided in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  But 
in  Pennsylvania  the  state  of  affairs  continued 
to  grow  steadily  worse,  and  the  opposition  to 
Hamilton's  vigorous  attempts  to  enforce  the 
law  grew  more  violent.  Finally,  Congress  gave 
the  executive  additional  powers,  which  were 
sorely  needed,  but  their  exercise  was  the  sig- 
nal for  armed  resistance  to  the  officers  of  the 
United  States.  From  gross  and  brutal  out- 
rages upon  property  and  persons,  the  insurgents 
passed  to  open  defiance  of  the  law.  The  United 
States  mail  was  stopped,  large  bodies  of  armed 
men  gathered,  and  the  speeches  and  publica- 
tions of  the  leaders  proclaimed  the  overthrow 
of  the  government.  The  emergency  had  come 
and  Washington  met  it,  as  he  did  every  crisis, 
calmly,  firmly,  and  successfully.  Hamilton  was 
at  his  side,  ready  with  every  detail.  He  had 
carefully  and  characteristically  estimated  the 
number  of  men  capable  of  bearing  arms  in  the 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    181 

Insurgent  counties,  and  knew  precisely  how 
many  troops  would  be  needed.  The  States  re- 
sponded to  the  call  of  the  President,  and  with 
fifteen  thousand  men  the  administration  faced 
the  incipient  rebellion. 

Hamilton,  after  his  own  energetic  fashion, 
wanted  to  serve  as  an  officer,  but  finding  this 
impracticable  accompanied  Washington  and  the 
army,  and  later  went  on  without  the  President 
in  general  superintendence  of  the  operations. 
It  was  his  policy,  and  he  was  determined  to 
carry  it  through  even  at  the  point  of  the  bay- 
onet, if  the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  law 
proved  powerless.  An  attempt  at  negotiation 
was  made  by  the  frightened  and  more  cautious 
among  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection.  The 
government  readily  gave  them  this  last  chance, 
but  the  conference  came  to  nothing,  and  the 
army  moved  forward  and  spread  through  the 
disaffected  region.  Then  the  insurrection  faded 
helplessly  and  bloodlessly  away.  It  disappeared 
not  only  completely,  but  ridiculously  and  with 
humiliation  to  the  vanquished.  Gradually  the 
disaffected  came  in  and  submitted,  and  were 
treated  with  the  leniency  which  is  so  strong 
a  trait  in  the  American  character.  Hamilton 
himself  showed  a  forbearance  not  a  little  re- 
markable in  a  man  of  his  bold  and  imperious 
nature.  But  he  was  too  wise  to  seek  punish* 


182  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ment  or  revenge.  He  had  triumphed.  His 
policy  was  vindicated.  It  had  not  been  too 
strong  for  the  government,  but  had  shown,  on 
the  contrary,  the  force  and  vitality  of  the  new 
system.  The  power  put  forth  had  been  sim- 
ply overwhelming,  and  insurrection  had  been 
crushed  without  leaving  any  memory  of  blood- 
shed to  rankle  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The 
financial  policy  had  in  truth  converted  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Constitution  into  a  living,  vigorous 
organism,  and  the  unshrinking  exercise  of  force 
by  the  administration,  which  was  wholly  due  to 
Washington  and  Hamilton,  brought  to  the  gov- 
ernment new  strength,  vigor,  and  respect.  The 
suppression  of  the  "  whiskey  rebellion "  had 
shown  the  government  to  be  capable  of  main- 
taining itself  against  armed  resistance.  The 
lesson  of  Shays  rebellion  had  not  been  wasted, 
and  the  contrast  thus  afforded  between  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  confederacy  and  that  of  the  Con- 
stitution was  the  crown  of  the  masterly  domestic 
policy  which  had  been  begun  by  the  first  report 
on  the  public  credit. 

When  Congress  came  together  the  victory 
of  the  administration  was  apparent  in  the  en- 
feebled action  of  the  opposition,  and  the  Feder- 
alists were  not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  it. 
Among  Genet's  legacies,  and  by  far  the  most 
objectionable,  were  the  Democratic  societies. 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    183 

so  called,  modeled  on  the  famous  "clubs"  of 
Paris.  They  were  worthless,  noisy  assemblages, 
given  to  useless  agitation.  Hamilton,  perhaps, 
saw  in  them  the  same  capabilities  for  mischief, 
the  same  anarchical  tendencies,  as  in  their  Par- 
isian prototypes,  but  both  he  and  Washington 
and  the  Federalists  generally  considered  them 
dangerous,  obnoxious,  and  by  their  clamorous 
folly  largely  responsible  for  the  outbreaks  in 
Pennsylvania.  Washington,  therefore,  strongly 
sustained  by  Hamilton,  smote  them  with  all 
the  force  of  his  rarely  used  personal  influence 
and  popularity.  He  denounced  them  in  his 
message ;  the  Senate  supported  him,  and  after 
a  heated  debate  in  the  House  the  opposition, 
despite  their  majority,  were  unable  to  protect 
their  beloved  associations.  The  blow,  sharply 
struck  and  well  calculated  in  point  of  time,  was 
decisive.  The  societies  withered  away,  and  Ge- 
net's work  was  at  an  end.  This  closed  the  first 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  struggles  growing 
out  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  administra- 
tion had  come  through  this  period  of  trial  with 
perfect  success.  Neutrality  had  been  estab- 
lished and  maintained,  the  wild  sympathy  with 
France  had  been  checked  and  discredited,  do- 
mestic insurrection  had  been  put  down,  and  na- 
tionality had  been  advanced  and  strengthened 
beyond  all  former  expectations. 


184  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

At  the  session  of  Congress  in  the  previous 
year,  when  the  opposition  were  throwing  them- 
selves upon  our  foreign  relations,  delighted  to 
abandon  the  financial  questions  where  they  had 
suffered  such  defeat,  Hamilton,  with  the  fixed 
purpose  that  the  attacks  upon  his  character 
should  not  rest  where  they  were,  demanded  fur- 
ther investigation.  The  most  searching  scru- 
tiny was  of  no  avail,  and  the  opposition  were 
more  than  ever  disgusted  with  their  mistake. 
After  the  lapse  of  another  year  Hamilton  put 
the  finishing  touch  to  the  funding  system  by  a 
comprehensive  scheme  for  the  redemption  of  the 
entire  debt.  While  this  measure  was  on  its  pas- 
sage, and  after  the  galling  results  to  the  oppo- 
sition of  their  investigation  were  well  known,  he 
laid  down  his  office  and  retired  from  public  life. 
He  had  been  for  some  time  contemplating  this 
step,  which  had  become  imperative  on  account 
of  his  private  affairs,  and  of  the  absolute  need 
of  an  increased  income  to  provide  for  his  large 
family.  He  had  been  in  office  for  nearly  six 
years,  and  his  work  was  done,  his  opinions  and 
his  personality  were  indelibly  impressed  upon 
our  frame  of  government  and  upon  our  political 
development.  We  look  in  vain  for  a  man  who, 
in  an  equal  space  of  time,  has  produced  such 
direct  and  lasting  effects  upon  our  institutions 
and  history. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    JAY    TREATY    AND    THE    ADAMS    ADMINIS- 
TRATION 

IF  anything  could  have  kept  Hamilton  in  the 
cabinet  it  would  have  been  a  knowledge  of  the 
•crisis  which  was  to  arise  upon  the  reception  of 
the  Jay  treaty.  He  was,  of  course,  well  aware 
of  the  fierce  opposition  excited  by  the  creation  of 
the  mission;  he  knew  of  the  public  meetings, 
of  the  ravings  of  extreme  Democrats,  both  in 
the  newspapers  and  on  the  platform,  and  of  the 
burnings  in  effigy  of  the  excellent  and  eminent 
ambassador.  But  he  regarded  all  these  things 
as  temporary  ebullitions,  which,  as  he  foresaw, 
died  away  into  quiet  while  Jay  was  carrying  on 
his  negotiations  with  Lord  Grenville.  Hamil- 
ton perceived,  too,  that,  apart  from  the  outward 
manifestations,  there  was  a  profound  interest  in 
the  result  of  Jay's  mission,  and  that  there  would 
be  a  party  conflict  over  its  ratification.  At 
the  same  time  he  certainly  did  not  anticipate 
that  such  a  shock  would  be  produced  as  that 
which  actually  occurred  when  the  contents  of 
the  treaty  became  known.  But  then  Hamilton 


186  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

did  not  expect  such  a  result  from  the  special 
mission.  Rumor,  speaking  to  us  in  the  person 
of  Jefferson,  says  that  Hamilton  called  it  an 
"  old  woman's  treaty  "  when  he  first  read  it.  To 
his  penetrating  mind  and  bold,  dashing  temper- 
ament, it  may  well  have  seemed  that  such  an 
epithet  was  just.  The  treaty  was  certainly  not 
such  a  one  as  he  himself  would  have  made. 
But  he  was  called  upon  to  deal  with  it  as  it 
stood,  and  on  the  broad  ground  of  whether  it 
should  be  accepted  with  all  its  defects,  or  re- 
jected in  favor  of  almost  certain  war. 

The  treaty  went  to  the  Senate,  was  ratified 
there,  except  the  highly  objectionable  prohibi- 
tory clause  in  the  twelfth  article,  and  then 
went  back  to  the  President  for  final  decision. 
Through  the  closed  doors  of  the  Senate  the 
treaty  slipped  out,  and  was  soon  public  pro- 
perty. When  it  became  known,  there  was 
an  outburst  of  popular  indignation  which  has 
hardly  ever  been  equaled  in  the  history  of  the 
country.  The  wrath  excited  was  partly  justifi- 
able, for  some  of  the  stipulations  were  far  from 
what  had  been  reasonably  expected,  and  the 
fire  was  assiduously  fanned  by  the  partisans  of 
France.  The  people  judged  hastily,  and,  in 
large  measure,  without  reflection.  The  tempest 
swept  through  the  country,  accompanied  with 
violent  denunciation,  insults  to  the  British  flag. 


THE  JAY  TREATY  187 

rioting,  burning  in  effigy,  and  every  species  of 
wild  disorder ;  even  the  sturdy  Federalist  States 
of  New  England  were  swept  from  their  moor- 
ings, and  joined  in  the  general  outcry. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  hurly-burly  stood 
Washington,  calm,  watchful,  unterrified,  mak- 
ing up  his  mind  silently,  and  with  "  truth  only 
for  his  guide."  Here  and  there  a  few  of  the 
coolest  and  wisest  among  the  Federalists  saw 
the  necessity  of  ratification  and  of  standing  by 
the  President,  and  with  their  accustomed  bold- 
ness and  ability  they  faced  the  apparently 
hopeless  odds  arrayed  against  them.  Foremost 
among  them  was  Hamilton,  ever  present  where 
the  fray  was  thickest,  and  always  first  to  come 
forward  when  a  fight,  especially  if  it  was  a 
desperate  one,  was  in  progress.  He  appeared 
at  a  great  public  meeting  in  New  York  to  en- 
deavor to  check  the  raging  opposition  by  fair 
discussion.  Debate  then  and  there  was  out  of 
the  question.  Persuasive  eloquence  had  for  the 
moment  lost  its  charm,  and  when  Hamilton  be- 
gan to  speak  he  was  howled  down  and  assailed 
with  a  volley  of  stones,  one  of  which  struck 
him  on  the  forehead.  With  perfect  coolness 
he  said,  "  If  you  use  such  striking  arguments, 
I  must  retire,"  and  withdrew  from  a  contest 
which  at  the  moment  was  hopeless.  But  he 
retreated  only  to  enter  another  field.  Four 


188  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

days  after  he  had  been  stoned  appeared  the  first 
number  of  the  series  of  essays  signed  "  Camil- 
lus,"  in  defense  of  the  treaty,  in  favor  of  the 
neutrality  and  peace  policy,  and  in  support  of 
the  administration. 

These  essays  continued  to  appear  for  a  year, 
and  until  the  weight  of  public  opinion  was  once 
more  on  the  side  of  their  author.  "  Camillus  " 
was  singularly  effective,  and  the  best  proof  of 
his  power  came  from  his  adversaries.  Jeffer- 
son was  particularly  disturbed.  He  felt  very 
keenly  the  truth  of  Burr's  remark,  that  any  one 
who  put  himself  on  paper  with  Hamilton  was 
lost.  At  the  same  time  he  was  willing  and 
even  anxious  that  some  one  else  should  run  the 
risk  of  wreck  in  a  conflict  with  "  the  Colossus 
of  the  Federalists,"  and  he  therefore  urged  the 
unattractive  duty  upon  Madison.  That  gentle- 
man, however,  had  as  little  stomach  for  the 
fight  as  his  chief,  and  prudently  held  back. 
Others  less  able  and  less  wary  than  their  lead- 
ers entered  the  field  with  replies  of  various 
merit  and  various  classical  signatures,  and  were 
beaten  and  driven  off.  Whatever  may  be  said 
of  Hamilton  in  other  respects,  in  political  con- 
troversy, in  the  art  of  moulding,  creating,  and 
controlling  public  opinion  by  discussion  and 
debate  in  the  newspapers,  he  stood  absolutely 
without  a  rival.  Keady,  persuasive,  transparent 


THE  JAY  TREATY  189 

in  reasoning,  and  formidable  in  retort,  he  never 
failed,  when  he  took  up  his  pen,  to  create  a 
profound  impression  or  to  sway  the  minds  of 
thinking  men,  and  he  never,  except  in  the 
"  Federalist,"  worked  under  greater  difficulties 
nor  with  greater  success  than  when  he  entered 
the  lists  as  "  Camillus." 

But  when  Hamilton  first  began  to  write  the 
clouds  had  gathered  thick  and  black  ;  it  seemed 
as  if  the  popular  rage  would  infallibly  lead  to 
war,  and,  in  order  to  make  the  position  of  the 
President  still  more  difficult,  England,  with  her 
customary  stupidity,  seized  that  moment  to  re- 
new the  obnoxious  provision  order.  This  gave 
pain  even  to  those  most  anxious  for  peace.  To 
Hamilton  it  seemed  intolerable  ;  to  Washington 
hardly  to  be  endured.  Outraged  by  the  nation 
with  which  he  was  seeking  to  make  peace,  with 
his  own  party  demoralized  and  hushed,  and 
with  the  opposition  in  full  cry  urging  on  the 
popular  clamor,  the  President  faced  the  great 
question.  With  that  high,  serene,  silent  cour- 
age which  he  always  showed,  whether  in  the 
shock  of  unsuccessful  battle  or  in  the  din  of 
hostile  politics,  Washington  deliberated.  He 
would  do  his  duty,  —  that  was  a  matter  of 
course.  As  to  what  that  duty  was,  he  felt 
but  little  doubt.  But  with  the  almost  painful 
sense  of  justice  and  responsibility  which  always 


190  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

characterized  him,  Washington  wished  to  know 
all  sides.  He  consulted  but  few  persons,  and 
among  those  few  Hamilton  was  first,  as  much 
so  as  if  he  had  never  left  the  cabinet.  Hamil- 
ton on  his  side  responded  as  fully  and  zealously 
as  if  he  were  still  the  President's  secretary.  He 
inclined  to  an  attempt  for  further  negotiation, 
and  advised  a  refusal  to  exchange  ratifications 
unless  the  provision  order  should  be  rescinded. 
On  the  general  principle  that  the  treaty,  which 
meant  peace  on  honorable  if  not  on  advanta- 
geous terms,  was  better  than  war,  he  sympathized 
with  Washington.  At  Washington's  request  he 
drew  up  a  summary  of  the  arguments  on  both 
sides  with  that  clearness  in  appreciating  all 
points  in  a  case  which  made  him  such  a  valued 
adviser  to  a  man  summoned  to  give  a  grave  de- 
cision. He  was  disposed,  on  the  whole,  to  be 
rather  more  aggressive  and  less  sacrificing  than 
Washington,  as  was  natural  to  his  temperament, 
but  when  the  President  finally  acted,  ratified 
the  treaty,  and  sent  it  to  England  with  a  sharp 
remonstrance  against  the  provision  order,  Ham- 
ilton fully  sustained  him.  In  all  the  struggle 
which  followed  in  repelling  attacks  on  the  ad- 
ministration, and  during  the  fierce  contest  over 
the  treaty  in  the  House,  he  played  the  same 
leading  part.  He  was  the  trusted  counselor  of 
Washington,  the  adviser  of  the  party  leaders, 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         191 

and  the  man  to  whom  all  the  most  active  Feder- 
alists turned  for  suggestions,  for  arguments,  and 
for  unfailing  aid  by  tongue  and  pen,  in  letters 
and  through  the  press. 

While  Hamilton  was  occupying  this  impor- 
tant and  influential  position  in  the  party  and 
before  the  country,  the  presidential  election 
came  on.  Washington  had  withdrawn  from  the 
field,  and  the  serious  problem  of  selecting  a  can- 
didate for  the  succession  confronted  the  Fed- 
eralists. They  faced  this  question  for  the  first 
time,  and  on  the  result,  as  after  events  showed, 
the  fate  of  the  party  largely  depended.  There 
were  four  men  from  whom  the  choice,  as  it 
seemed  at  the  time,  must  be  made,  —  Hamilton, 
Adams,  Jay,  and  Thomas  Pinckney  of  South 
Carolina.  Hamilton  was  the  head  of  the  Fed- 
eralists, but  he  was  the  leader  of  the  leaders 
rather  than  of  the  party.  He  never  had  a  strong 
hold  on  the  people,  or  on  the  rank  and  file  even 
of  his  own  party.  Moreover,  he  was  the  man 
most  hated  and  feared  by  the  opposition.  He 
was  the  incarnation  of  the  whole  Federalist  pol- 
icy from  the  foundation  of  the  government,  and 
as  a  candidate  he  would  have  aroused  enmities 
too  fierce  to  have  permitted  his  election.  This 
was  plainly  seen,  and  by  no  one  more  plainly 
than  by  Hamilton  himself,  for  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  he  ever  gave  the  idea  of  securing  the 


192  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Federalist  nomination  for  the  Presidency  seri« 
ous  consideration,  or  was  influenced  by  it  for  a 
moment.  Jay's  name  was  so  closely  associated 
with  the  conflict  of  the  treaty  as  to  put  him,  too, 
out  of  the  lists.  Pinckney  was  well  known  and 
popular,  especially  on  account  of  the  brilliant 
success  of  his  treaty  with  Spain,  but  he  was  a 
new  man  and  a  Southerner,  and  the  Federalist 
strongholds  were  in  the  North.  There  remained 
John  Adams,  who  was,  with  the  exception  of 
Hamilton,  the  most  conspicuous  man  in  the 
party,  and  he  had  had  a  long  and  distinguished 
career.  He  contended  with  Hamilton,  also,  for 
the  perilous  honor  of  being  the  chief  mark  for 
the  concentrated  dislike  of  the  opposition.  But 
he  was,  on  the  other  hand,  still  revered  for  emi- 
nent services  in  the  Kevolution,  his  name  still 
awakened  the  memories  of  the  great  conflict  for 
independence,  and  he  had  in  this  way  a  hold 
upon  the  body  of  the  party  and  upon  the  popu- 
lar imagination.  Moreover,  he  was  a  Northern 
man  and  in  the  line  of  promotion. 

It  was  therefore  determined  by  the  party  lead- 
ers to  vote  for  Adams  and  Pinckney  for  the  first 
and  second  offices  respectively ;  a  wise  conclu- 
sion, which  made  what  would,  in  the  language 
of  to-day,  be  called  a  "  strong  ticket."  Unfor- 
tunately the  Constitution  did  not  then  admit  of 
a  "ticket."  The  person  receiving  the  highest 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         193 

number  of  votes  was  President,  the  next  high- 
est Vice-President.  This  opened  the  door  to 
an  infinite  amount  of  management  and  intrigue 
in  the  electoral  colleges.  The  Federalists  were 
well  aware  that  their  chance  of  success  was  nar- 
row, and  that  no  votes  could  be  spared.  Ham- 
ilton's views  were  simple  enough.  He  wished 
first  to  hold  the  administration  in  the  party,  and 
then  to  win  the  second  place  for  a  Federalist  and 
exclude  Jefferson.  To  do  this  he  urged  upon 
all  his  friends  the  policy  of  voting  strictly  for 
both  Adams  and  Pinckney,  and  of  throwing  no 
votes  away.  In  so  doing  he  was  right,  clearly 
and  beyond  all  question,  and  the  departure  from 
this  policy  elected  Jefferson  to  the  second  place. 
By  its  adoption  two  contingencies  were  possible : 
either  Adams  and  Pinckney  would  receive  an 
equal  number  of  votes,  which  would  throw  the 
decision  into  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  and 
probably  give  the  election  to  Adams ;  or  —  and 
this  was  the  hypothesis  fatal  to  the  scheme  — 
the  South  would  throw  away  their  votes  for 
Adams  and  make  Pinckney  President.  To  this 
latter  contingency  Hamilton  was  indifferent. 
Indeed,  it  is  pretty  clear  that  he  preferred 
Pinckney,  because  he  felt  that  he  would  then 
continue  to  be  the  controlling  influence  with 
the  administration,  while  his  observation  had 
led  him  to  suspect  that  the  reverse  would  prob* 


194  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ably  be  the  case  under  Adams.  In  letting  hi& 
preference  for  Pinckney,  or  rather  his  indiffer- 
ence of  choice  as  between  Pinckney  and  Adams, 
be  known,  Hamilton  made  a  mistake.  As  the 
principal  leader  of  the  party  he  was  bound  to 
sink  personal  preferences  and  support  the  choice 
of  the  party  for  the  first  place  without  any  re- 
servation, and  he  should  have  put  the  plan  of 
voting  equally  for  both  candidates  solely  on  the 
ground  of  party  success,  treating  the  possible 
election  of  Pinckney  as  a  thing  never  to  be 
considered,  much  less  viewed  with  indifference. 
How  far  Hamilton's  position  injured  his  own 
policy  of  voting  it  would  now  be  difficult  to  say. 
The  plan  was  doomed  to  defeat,  because  South 
Carolina  would  not  vote  for  a  Northern  man,  a 
fact  of  which  New  England,  unluckily,  was  well 
aware.  The  result  was  that  both  sections  threw 
away  votes,  electing  Adams  by  a  bare  plurality 
of  three,  and  defeating  Pinckney,  bringing  about 
exactly  the  mischief  Hamilton  had  striven  so 
earnestly  to  prevent,  the  choice  of  Jefferson  as 
Vice-President. 

When  Adams  was  inaugurated  the  situation 
was  both  novel  and  difficult.  Adams,  unlike 
Washington,  was  elected  by  a  party  and  strictly 
as  a  party  man.  He  was,  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
head  of  the  party  dejure.  But  despite  the  Pre- 
sident's hold  upon  the  people,  Hamilton,  owing 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         195 

to  his  brilliant  services  and  his  predominant  in- 
fluence with  almost  all  the  party  leaders,  was 
the  head  of  the  Federalists  de  facto.  On  the 
relations  existing  between  these  two  men,  there- 
lore,  the  welfare  of  the  party  largely  depended. 
Both  Adams  and  Hamilton  were  honestly  anx- 
ious for  the  success  of  their  party,  for  the  well- 
being  and  advancement  of  their  country,  and 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  cardinal  principles 
of  Washington's  administration.  Unfortunately 
they  entered  upon  this  new  and  trying  period 
in  the  career  of  their  party  with  feelings  of 
coolness,  if  not  of  mutual  distrust.  Hamilton 
had  taken  votes  from  Adams  at  the  first  election 
to  make  sure  that  the  selection  of  Washington 
for  the  first  place  should  not  be  endangered.  In 
the  years  which  followed,  Adams  gave  a  sturdy 
and  often  decisive  support  to  the  treasury  mea- 
sures and  to  the  general  policy  of  the  adminis- 
tration, so  that  at  the  second  election  he  received 
Hamilton's  hearty  support  for  the  vice-presi- 
dency, and  their  relations  were  then  cordial.  lu 
the  third  election  Adams  was  aware  of  Hamil- 
ton's policy  of  equal  voting,  'which  he  hastily 
attributed  to  nothing  but  the  latter's  preference 
for  Pinckney.  This  revived  the  memory  of  the 
first  election,  and  Adams  quickly  set  down  the 
whole  thing  as  one  long-continued  and  jealous 
intrigue.  Hamilton  had  erred  at  the  first  elec- 


196  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

tion  by  taking  doubtful  action  for  which  there 
was  no  occasion.  His  policy  at  the  last  was 
wise  and  right,  but  he  made  the  mistake  of  not 
burying  his  personal  preferences  and  keeping 
them  out  of  sight. 

When  Adams  came  to  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment he  regarded  Hamilton  as  guilty  of  the 
almost  unpardonable  sin  of  want  of  respect 
toward  himself,  as  prone  to  intrigue,  grasping, 
dictatorial,  and  of  great  power  in  the  party. 
Hamilton,  on  his  side,  thought  Adams  unreason- 
able, unmanageable,  at  times  wrong-headed,  in 
short  unsafe ;  and  he  had  unfortunately  been  at 
very  little  pains  in  the  recent  past  to  conceal 
these  opinions.  Hamilton  had  gone  out  of  office 
in  good  faith  and  he  had  no  desire  to  regain  it, 
but  he  had  a  profound  interest  in  the  fate  of  the 
Federalist  policy  which  had  made  the  Union, 
and  which  was  so  largely  the  work  of  his  own 
hands.  He,  therefore,  was  anxious  to  retain 
his  influence  with  the  administration  and  his 
power  in  the  party.  His  position  entitled  him 
to  confidence  and  consultation,  and  he  was  by 
no  means  a  difficult  counselor,  nor  anxious  to 
absorb  all  credit  to  himself.  If  the  work  was 
well  done,  Hamilton  cared  little  who  did  it. 
When  on  one  or  two  occasions  he  grasped  at  the 
ensigns  of  command,  it  was  because  he  honestly 
believed  that  he  was  the  only  man  fit  to  bear 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         197 

their  weight.  He  was  a  severe  and  penetrating 
critic,  but  neither  jealous  nor  captious.  It  was 
perfectly  easy  to  manage  Hamilton  and  win  his 
cordial  support.  Washington  had  never  found 
the  slightest  difficulty  in  dealing  with  him  in  or 
out  of  office.  All  that  was  required  was  tact, 
full  and  frank  consultation,  and  the  deference  to 
which  his  opinions  were  on  every  ground  entitled. 
Tact  in  managing  men,  however,  was  con- 
spicuous in  John  Adams  chiefly  by  its  absence. 
Fear  did  not  enter  into  his  composition,  and  he 
was  sure  to  do  what  he  believed  to  be  right  at 
all  hazards,  but  he  could  not  be  right  gracefully 
and  with  address.  Every  dictate  of  prudence 
and  of  party  obligation  bound  him  to  consult 
Hamilton,  and  yet  he  undertook  to  ignore  him 
first  and  crush  him  afterwards.  Hamilton,  on 
his  part,  when  he  found  that  the  President  was 
prejudiced  against  him,  and  bolted  wildly  at  the 
thought  of  being  influenced  by  him,  should  have 
supported  the  administration  when  he  could, 
and,  if  his  advice  openly  offered  was  neglected, 
should  have  remained  passive  so  long  as  he 
could  consistently  remain  in  the  party.  This 
would  have  been  not  only  wise,  but  dignified 
and  in  keeping  with  his  position,  and  it  would 
not  have  concealed  his  opinions  or  diminished 
their  due  weight  with  the  party  at  large.  Un- 
fortunately such  a  course  required  very  great 


198  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

self-control,  which  was  difficult  to  Hamilton's 
imperious  and  energetic  nature.  Instead  of 
either  leaving  Mr.  Adams  alone  or  openly  re- 
sisting him  in  the  party,  he  undertook  to  force 
the  President's  hand,  through  his  power  over 
the  cabinet  and  the  leaders  in  Congress.  The 
result  of  such  relations  between  these  two  chiefs 
was  certain  to  cause  an  open  breach  as  soon  as 
they  differed  in  policy,  and  equally  sure  to  pro- 
duce disaster  to  the  party. 

"Washington  had  settled  the  English  ques- 
tion. Danger  in  that  quarter  was  removed,  and 
the  means  employed  to  effect  the  removal  were 
one  fruitful  cause  of  peril  in  another  direction. 
In  proportion  as  our  relations  with  England 
improved,  those  with  France  grew  worse.  Mr. 
Monroe,  after  a  career  of  light-headed  mischief 
unparalleled  in  our  diplomatic  history,  had 
finally  been  recalled  from  France.  Mr.  Charles 
Cotesworth  Pinckney  had  been  sent  in  his  stead, 
and  had  been  refused  a  reception.  With  mat- 
ters in  this  state,  and  on  the  heels  of  a  savage 
controversy  with  the  French  minister,  Mr.  Adams 
took  the  helm.  The  country  was  again  on  the 
verge  of  war,  and  the  first  question  which  con- 
fronted the  administration  was  the  settlement  of 
this  difficulty.  The  question  was,  whether  we 
should  stand  upon  our  dignity  and  prepare  at 
once  for  war,  or  make  another  effort  for  peace. 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         199 

The  decision  of  this  question  brought  to  light 
the  existence  of  a  third  faction  which  agreed 
neither  with  Hamilton  nor  Adams,  although  in 
general  sympathy  with  the  former.  Its  repre- 
sentative and  most  active  leader  was  Colonel 
Pickering,  the  secretary  of  state,  and  it  found 
its  principal  support  among  the  Federalists  of 
New  England.  Hamilton  regarded  the  French 
republic  with  unqualified  dislike  and  distrust. 
He  believed  that  the  war  they  were  then  waging 
was  directed  against  everything  he  held  most 
precious,  against  constitutional  liberty,  law,  or- 
der, and  society.  At  the  same  time  he  was  too 
much  of  a  statesman  not  to  perceive  that  war 
ought  to  be  avoided  by  us  if  it  was  possible, 
and  that  the  policy  which  he  had  advocated  with 
reference  to  England  should  also  be  pursued 
toward  France.  The  cabinet  faction,  going  be- 
yond Hamilton  in  their  hatred  of  French  princi- 
ples, believed  that  the  sooner  we  were  committed 
to  open  hostilities  with  the  great  republic,  and 
all  that  it  represented,  the  better.  Adams,  how- 
ever, took  the  same  view  as  Hamilton,  and  the 
policy  of  sending  three  special  peace  commis- 
sioners prevailed.  Before  the  force  of  the  united 
opinion  of  the  two  chief  leaders  all  factions  were 
powerless,  and  this  shows  only  too  plainly  the 
terrible  blunder  made  by  Adams  in  not  making 
it  his  first  object  to  consult  with  Hamilton,  and 


200  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

act  in  conjunction  with  him.  So  far  all  went 
well ;  but  on  the  composition  of  the  commission, 
which  was  of  deep  political  importance  in  any 
event,  and  which  in  case  of  war  was  sure  to  be 
of  the  greatest  moment  in  its  effect  upon  public 
opinion,  Adams  and  Hamilton  parted  company. 
All  were  agreed  that  Pinckney  must  be  one  of 
the  three  commissioners,  and  that  the  commis- 
sion ought  to  consist  of  two  Federalists  and  one 
Democrat.  Pinckney  represented  the  South, 
and  Hamilton  wished  that  the  other  Federalist 
should  be  taken  from  the  North,  and  that  the 
Democrat  should  be  Madison  or  even  Jefferson, 
—  in  other  words  a  leading  Virginian  and  Dem- 
ocrat who  was  widely  known  and  personally 
respected  by  all  parties,  a  "character,"  as  Ham- 
ilton expressed  it,  "in  whom  France  and  the 
opposition  had  full  reliance."  Adams,  carried 
away  by  the  suspicion  that  an  attempt  was  being 
made  to  force  upon  him  a  nomination  from  the 
Hamiltonian  faction  in  New  England,  took 
Marshal],  from  Virginia,  and  Gerry,  as  the 
Democrat,  from  Massachusetts.  To  take  both 
Federalists  from  the  South,  where  the  party  had 
no  strength,  was  hardly  wise,  but  to  take  a 
northern  Democrat  in  place  of  Madison,  espe- 
cially a  man  of  Gerry's  slender  abilities,  was  a 
most  serious  blunder.  Gerry  brought  discredit 
on  the  mission  by  his  weakness  and  over-confi- 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         201 

dence,  and  produced  a  good  deal  of  mischief, 
although  it  may  be  questioned  whether  he  af- 
fected materially  the  general  result.  His  ap- 
pointment was  not  only  a  poor  one  in  itself,  but 
it  had  a  bad  effect  at  home,  exasperated  the 
feeling  in  certain  quarters  against  the  President, 
was  generally  considered  injudicious,  and  caused 
Adams  much  subsequent  annoyance.  The  gen- 
eral policy  of  Washington's  time  was,  however, 
maintained.  As  in  the  case  of  Jay,  Hamilton 
was  for  very  stiff  instructions,  at  first  almost 
unreasonably  so,  and,  as  in  the  former  instance, 
milder  counsels  prevailed,  and  the  envoys  went 
forth  upon  their  mission. 

The  result  is  well  known.  The  commission- 
ers were  insulted  and  outraged  in  every  possi- 
ble way.  They  were  improperly  received ;  and 
when  attempts  to  bully  and  bribe  had  failed  to 
sway  them,  they  were  driven  from  France.  To 
the  opposition  clamoring  for  information  about 
the  negotiation  with  their  beloved  France,  Mr. 
Adams  sent  in  the  famous  X.  Y.  Z.  correspond- 
ence. The  mixture  of  swindling  and  browbeat- 
ing thus  disclosed,  heightened  as  it  was  by  news 
of  a  decree  far  surpassing  its  predecessors  in  de- 
fiance of  neutral  rights,  and  by  the  burning  of 
one  of  our  vessels  by  a  French  privateer,  lighted 
up  a  hot  flame  of  indignation  which  swept  rap- 
idly and  fiercely  over  the  country,  setting  it 
ablaze  with  the  spirit  of  war. 


202  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

This  exposure  utterly  discredited  also  the 
party  of  the  opposition  friendly  to  France  and 
broke  them  down  completely.  One  by  one  they 
slipped  away  from  Congress,  where  they  had 
a  majority,  leaving  the  undaunted  Gallatin  to 
face  not  merely  defeat,  but  what  seemed  to  be 
disgrace.  Jefferson,  with  a  discomfited  whine, 
bowed  before  the  storm,  and  even  Giles  is  said 
for  the  moment  to  have  lost  a  little  of  his  usual 
rough  effrontery.  With  the  Federalists,  of 
course,  everything  was  just  the  reverse.  Enthu- 
siastic addresses  poured  in  upon  the  President, 
who  responded  to  them  with  equal  fervor,  and 
in  a  most  spirited  manner.  In  the  press,  and  at 
public  meetings,  men  rivaled  each  other  in  de- 
nunciation of  France.  War  vessels  were  fitted 
out  by  private  subscription  and  presented  to  the 
government ;  and  Marshall,  returning  to  be  re- 
ceived with  fetes  and  banquets,  raised  the  pub- 
lic wrath  to  a  still  higher  pitch.  The  Federal- 
ists carried  rapidly  all  the  strong  measures  of 
defense  which  they  deemed  essential,  —  a  provi- 
sional army  and  an  increase  of  troops,  of  fortifi- 
cations, and  of  the  navy.  At  the  next  general 
election  they  triumphed,  and  found  themselves 
in  possession  for  the  first  time  of  a  strong  ma- 
jority. The  conduct  of  France  raised  them  to 
the  zenith  of  their  power,  but  it  was  of  short 
duration,  and  their  strength  brought  with  it  the 


THE  ADAMS   ADMINISTRATION        203 

events  which  reduced  them  soon  after  to  utter 
ruin.  The  first  result  was  the  fight  made  by  the 
President  against  the  appointment  of  Hamilton 
to  the  command  of  the  provisional  army. 

Washington  was  selected  as  commander-in- 
chief ,  and  consented  to  serve,  provided  he  should 
not  take  an  active  part  until  the  army  should 
be  actually  in  the  field,  and  provided  further 
that  he  should  have  the  choice  of  the  officers 
who  were  to  be  next  him  in  rank  and  to  act  as 
his  staff.  Washington  was  clearly  of  opinion 
that  the  army  ought  to  be  constituted  de  novo, 
and  that  there  should  be  no  question  of  revolu- 
tionary rank.  He  accordingly  sent  to  the  Presi- 
dent a  list  of  major-generals,  in  the  following 
order :  Hamilton,  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney, 
and  Knox.  This  gave  the  practical  command 
and  the  work  of  organization  to  Hamilton.  Mr. 
Adams  sent  Washington's  name  at  once  to  the 
Senate,  and  then  the  major  -  generals  in  the 
order  prescribed  by  Washington.  This  done, 
he  wheeled  about  when  it  came  to  signing  the 
commissions,  and  took  the  ground  that  Knox 
was  the  senior  officer  on  account  of  his  revolu- 
tionary rank.  He  disregarded  the  fact  that,  by 
the  precedents  of  the  Congress  of  the  confeder- 
acy, officers  ranked  in  the  order  of  their  confir- 
mation. He  refused  to  admit  that  Hamilton  was 
the  man  best  fitted  for  the  post,  and  was  so  con- 


204  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

sidered  by  the  public ;  he  plunged  himself  and 
his  party  into  a  bitter  personal  quarrel,  and  all 
because  he  disliked  Hamilton,  and  was  enraged 
at  the  opposition  of  the  cabinet  to  himself. 

The  President's  course  led  to  an  immediate 
and  desperate  struggle.  Not  only  the  cabinet, 
but  all  the  leading  Federalists,  urged  upon  him 
the  adoption  of  Washington's  list.  He  alien- 
ated Knox  from  Hamilton,  who  was  a  friend  of 
long  standing,  and  ultimately  caused  the  for- 
mer's resignation,  while  Pinckney  on  his  return 
fully  admitted  the  propriety  of  the  appoint- 
ments, and  cheerfully  took  service  in  the  rank 
assigned  by  Washington.  The  pressure  of  opin- 
ion upon  the  President  grew  stronger  constantly, 
and  yet,  though  he  writhed  a  good  deal  in  anger, 
he  seemed  to  become  more  fixed  in  his  pur- 
pose. The  Federalist  leaders,  deeply  alarmed, 
turned  to  Mount  Vernon  for  assistance.  In  un- 
mistakable language  Washington  told  Adams 
that  if  the  agreement  made  between  them  was 
not  adhered  to  he  should  resign.  Adams  was 
a  bold  and  stubborn  man,  but  he  dared  not  face 
the  displeasure  of  Washington  and  the  conse- 
quences of  his  resignation  on  such  a  question. 
In  bitterness  of  spirit  he  gave  way,  and  ap- 
pointed Hamilton  to  the  first  place,  and  the 
sense  of  defeat  changed  keen  dislike  to  an  almost 
venomous  hatred  of  the  man  whom  he  chose  to 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         205 

think  his  rival.  The  conduct  of  Adams  in  this 
whole  affair  is  utterly  indefensible.  There  is 
not  a  single  valid  reason  for  the  course  he  took. 
From  a  personal  feeling  he  brought  on  a  bitter, 
senseless,  and  perfectly  futile  quarrel,  weakened 
the  party  and  himself,  and  all  because  he  dis- 
liked the  man  who  happened  to  be  best  fitted  for 
the  command  of  the  army.  No  adverse  criti- 
cism can  be  made  upon  Hamilton,  except  that, 
while  at  first  he  quietly  accepted  the  situation 
to  which  he  was  called  by  Washington  and  the 
party,  after  the  contest  over  his  appointment 
began,  he  exhibited  a  rather  disagreeable  and 
aggressive  self-assertion  common  enough  in  men 
of  great  abilities  and  commanding  wills,  and 
from  which  he  was  on  rare  occasions  not  wholly 
free.  Thus  the  appointment  was  finally  made, 
leaving  a  legacy  of  heart-burning,  a  memory  of 
compulsion  and  defeat  on  one  side,  and  of  in- 
justice and  triumph  on  the  other. 

With  his  accustomed  zeal,  Hamilton  at  once 
threw  himself  into  his  new  work,  and  gave  him- 
self up  to  it  heart  and  soul.  His  task  was  that 
of  organization  and  preparation,  for  which  he 
had  a  peculiar  genius,  and  it  is  needless  to  say 
that  his  work  was  of  the  best.  He  was  first 
called  upon  to  draft  a  plan  for  the  fortification 
of  the  harbor  of  New  York  and  superintend  its 
execution,  funds  having  been  appropriated  by 


206  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  State  for  that  purpose.  This  was  somewhat 
outside  the  regular  path  of  his  duty,  but  he  gave 
it  his  attention  and  made  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments. Soon  after,  he  met  Washington  and 
Pinckney  at  Philadelphia  and  drew  up  a  scheme 
which  Washington  adopted  for  the  apportion- 
ment of  officers  and  men  among  the  States,  for 
a  recruiting  system,  and  for  supplies,  arsenals, 
camp  equipages,  and  ordnance.  In  a  second 
paper,  likewise  accepted  by  Washington,  he  laid 
out  a  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  army,  in 
which  he  dealt  with  the  questions  of  pay,  uni- 
forms, rations,  rank,  promotion,  field  exercise, 
regulation  of  barracks,  the  police  of  garrisons 
and  camps,  and  the  issue  of  arms,  clothing,  and 
fuel.  These  elaborate  suggestions  were  neces- 
sarily hasty,  but  they  exhibit  great  familiarity 
with  the  various  subjects,  fertility  of  resource, 
and  broad  and  comprehensive  views.  They  re- 
ceived the  highest  proof  of  their  value  in  gain- 
ing the  approval  of  Washington,  the  best  and 
most  experienced  soldier  of  the  day. 

When  Congress  assembled,  Hamilton  sent  to 
the  Senate  a  bill  which  became  law  and  was  en- 
titled, "  An  Act  for  the  better  organizing  of  the 
troops  of  the  United  States."  This  measure 
changed  as  little  as  possible  the  existing  system, 
dealing  chiefly  with  the  proportion  to  be  estab- 
lished between  the  number  of  officers  and  of 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION       207 

men.  Hamilton's  purpose  was  to  make  a  u  fun- 
damental arrangement,"  so  that  in  the  future 
the  existing  system  could  be  increased  or  di- 
minished at  will  without  altering  the  form  of 
organization.  He  also  drafted  a  bill  for  a 
"Medical  Establishment,"  and  devised  plans 
for  the  classification  and  organization  of  the 
militia,  for  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  for  mili- 
tary supplies,  and  from  time  to  time  he  issued 
circulars  to  the  army  to  check  intemperance, 
dueling,  and  desertion,  and  to  promote  disci- 
pline. McHeury,  in  fact,  turned  to  Hamilton 
for  instructions  on  every  point  connected  with 
the  War  Department,  while  Stoddert  and  Wol- 
cott  sought  his  advice  in  an  almost  equal  de- 
gree as  to  the  policy  to  be  pursued  with  regard 
to  the  navy  and  the  treasury.  In  the  spring 
of  1799  he  made  every  necessary  arrangement 
for  the  invasion  of  Louisiana  and  the  Floridas. 
He  also  prepared  a  scheme  for  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  frontier  posts,  and 
devoted  much  time  and  attention  to  the  forti- 
fication of  New  York.  Hamilton's  bills  for 
organization,  for  the  medical  establishment,  and 
for  the  eventual  augmentation  of  the  army,  all 
became  laws,  but  the  work  of  actual  recruiting 
was  constantly  delayed,  until  at  last,  after  the 
departure  of  the  second  peace  commission,  it 
became  obvious  that  there  would  be  no  war, 


208  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  all  active  measures  gradually  ceased.  Ham- 
ilton's military  services  at  this  time  went  no 
farther  than  the  elaboration  of  plans  and  the 
work  of  preparation ;  the  only  lasting  result  of 
his  labors  being  the  establishment  of  the  West 
Point  Academy  a  few  years  later  in  general 
conformity  with  his  suggestions.  Hamilton  in 
all  these  matters  exhibited,  however,  not  only 
his  usual  energetic  and  indefatigable  industry 
and  his  readiness  in  dealing  with  a  wide  range 
of  topics,  but  he  showed  that  he  possessed  in  a 
high  degree  the  military  attributes  of  foresight, 
breadth  of  view,  knowledge  of  details,  and  great 
capacity  for  organization.  Whether  if  he  had 
been  called  into  actual  service  he  would  have 
displayed  in  equal  measure  the  still  more  im- 
portant qualities  which  are  essential  to  a  suc- 
cessful general  in  an  active  campaign  and  on 
the  field  of  battle,  must  remain  mere  conjecture. 
This  much  is  certain,  that  he  did  the  best  that 
was  possible  in  all  that  fell  to  him  to  do,  and 
that  his  strong  hand  was  felt  in  all  departments 
of  the  government  in  regard  to  everything  re- 
lating to  the  war  policy  of  the  United  States. 

But  while  Hamilton  was  devoting  himself  to 
these  laborious  duties,  he  was  working  out  in 
his  usual  manner  detailed  and  comprehensive 
plans  for  the  general  conduct  of  the  war.  He 
saw  that  there  would  be  no  battles  to  fight  with 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION        209 

France  in  the  East,  and  he  was  convinced  that 
the  only  way  to  reach  her  was  through  the  sides 
of  her  ally,  Spain.  He  therefore  designed  to 
wrest  from  the  latter  power  the  region  of  the 
extreme  Southwest,  and  give  to  the  United 
States  final  and  complete  control  of  the  great 
valley  of  the  Mississippi.  These  ideas  were  of 
long  standing,  and  were  part  of  that  conception 
of  nationality  and  of  national  greatness  which 
was  the  predominating  influence  in  Hamilton's 
public  career.  The  last  resolution  which  he  had 
introduced  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation 
declared  the  "  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to 
be  a  clear  and  essential  right  and  to  be  sup- 
ported as  such."  A  few  years  later  he  had  said 
in  the  cabinet  that  the  free  use  of  that  river  was 
"  essential  to  the  unity  of  the  empire."  In  1798 
he  urged  upon  Pickering  the  necessity  of  getting 
possession  of  Louisiana  and  the  Floridas,  and  in 
the  following  year  he  wrote :  "  I  have  been  long 
in  the  habit  of  considering  the  acquisition  of 
those  countries  as  essential  to  the  permanency 
of  the  Union." 

It  seemed  now  as  if  the  moment  had  come 
when  these  theories  might  be  put  into  execution, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  were  uppermost 
in  Hamilton's  thoughts.  Both  from  a  political 
and  military  point  of  view  he  was  right.  The 
national  and  imperial  instincts  of  his  nature  did 


210  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

not  mislead  him.  The  Mississippi  and  the  great 
regions  of  the  Southwest  were  essential  to  union 
and  empire.  The  future  has  justified  him,  and 
in  no  single  point  has  it  shown  more  strikingly 
the  range  of  Hamilton's  vision  as  a  statesman 
and  the  force  and  penetration  of  his  mind.  By 
one  of  the  strange  but  not  uncommon  contradic- 
tions which  we  meet  with  in  human  history,  it 
fell  to  the  lot  of  Hamilton's  keenest  foe  to  carry 
out  the  most  imperial  part  of  the  great  Federal- 
ist's national  policy.  It  was  reserved  to  Jeffer- 
son to  acquire  by  purchase,  and  in  what  was  then 
thought  to  be  defiance  of  the  Constitution,  the 
vast  territory  which  Hamilton  planned  only  a 
few  years  before  to  win  by  arms.  The  accom- 
plishment of  the  work  fell  to  other  hands,  but 
the  conception  was  Hamilton's,  and  it  was  he 
who  first  formulated  the  brilliant  scheme,  and 
after  years  of  waiting  devised  means  which  would 
have  assured  success. 

Besides  the  control  of  the  Mississippi  and  the 
conquest  of  the  Southwest  there  had  long  been 
in  Hamilton's  mind  still  another  idea  which, 
while  national  in  its  origin,  was  intended  rather 
to  increase  the  power  of  the  United  States  than 
to  strengthen  their  union.  "  Our  situation,"  he 
wrote  in  "  The  Federalist,"  "  invites,  and  our 
situation  prompts  us  to  aim  at  an  ascendant  in 
American  affairs."  We  were  to  be  dominant 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         211 

in  the  western  hemisphere.  We  were  not  only 
to  be  neutral  as  to  the  affairs  of  Europe,  but 
we  were  to  exact  from  Europe  neutrality  in  all 
regarding  America,  and  were  to  crush  out  Euro- 
pean influence.  Here  is  the  Monroe  doctrine 
in  its  widest  scope,  and  with  such  notions  long 
cherished,  and  while  he  was  revolving  these  plans 
for  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  Hamilton's  imagination  was  touched  by  the 
schemes  of  the  Spanish  adventurer  Miranda. 
He  began  to  believe  that  the  time  had  come  for 
conquests  beyond  the  Mississippi  which  should 
result  in  the  liberation  of  the  Central  and  even 
of  the  South  American  States,  and  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  republics  in  those  regions. 

Miranda  had  been  long  engaged  in  these 
schemes,  and  had  already  endeavored  to  enlist 
England  as  an  ally.  He  now  wished  to  have 
England  and  the  United  States  unite  and  un- 
dertake the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  power  in 
South  America.  This  fell  in  with  the  Federal- 
ist longing  to  join  all  decent  people  in  a  cru- 
sade against  the  hated  French  republic.  Such 
an  alliance  would  insure  the  ruin  of  Spain,  the 
tool  of  France,  the  closing  of  the  South  Ameri- 
can ports  to  French  privateers,  and  great  acqui- 
sition of  territory  to  the  United  States.  It  was, 
in  case  of  war  with  France,  both  a  wise  and 
sufficiently  practicable  policy,  and  it  is  no  won- 


212  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

der  that  Hamilton  thought  it  worth  considera* 
tion  by  the  government,  and  at  all  events  judged 
that  it  was  well  to  be  informed  as  to  the  pro- 
gress of  such  a  movement.  He  therefore  sought 
to  interest  the  government  in  Miranda,  and  no 
doubt  gave  undue  importance  to  that  soldier  of 
fortune;  but  his  own  campaign  was  that  of  a 
great  general  and  a  far-seeing  statesman.  Mil- 
itary glory  appealed  strongly  to  a  sweeping 
intellect  and  powerful  nature  like  Hamilton's, 
and  we  may  readily  believe  that  he  dreamed  of 
extensive  conquests  and  great  deeds  of  arms. 
That  he  thought  the  opportunity  likely  to  come 
at  that  moment  is  more  than  doubtful.  It  is 
certain  that  it  never  affected  his  public  course, 
and  that  he  never  aimed  at  anything  which, 
however  it  might  redound  to  his  own  fame, 
went  beyond  an  extension  and  consolidation  of 
the  power  of  the  United  States.  The  theory 
that  his  mind  teemed  with  visions  of  empire  and 
of  military  power  in  the  Napoleonic  fashion, 
schemes  fraught  with  danger  and  perhaps  des- 
potism, is  due  to  the  heated  and  hostile  mind  of 
Mr.  Adams.  Hamilton  was  not  only  extremely 
guarded  in  his  correspondence  with  Miranda,  to 
whom  he  said  that  "he  could  personally  have 
no  participation  in  his  plan  unless  patronized 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States,"  but  he 
was  also  in  consultation  with  Rufus  King,  our 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         213 

cautious  minister  to  England.  Throughout  he 
scrupulously  avoided  doing  or  saying  anything 
which  could  by  any  possibility  give  ground  for 
the  suspicion  that  he  was  taking  part  in  the 
schemes  of  an  adventurer  without  the  assent 
of  his  government.  The  plan  appealed  to  his 
strongest  instincts  as  a  statesman  and  soldier, 
and  fired  his  imagination.  It  was,  too,  not  un- 
reasonable, and  in  the  event  of  war  Hamilton 
determined  to  be  in  a  position  to  take  every 
advantage  of  such  brilliant  possibilities. 

But  while  Hamilton  gave  himself  up  to  the 
onerous  duties  immediately  before  him,  his 
dreams  and  aspirations,  if  he  had  any,  came  to 
a  speedy  end.  The  popular  indignation  and  the 
hearty  support  of  the  administration,  the  bold 
attitude  of  the  United  States,  and  the  fighting 
qualities  of  our  little  navy,  already  striking  tell- 
ing blows  at  the  French  privateers  and  men-of- 
war,  all  impressed  France  with  the  fact  that  she 
had  aroused  a  nation  out  of  reach  of  her  armies, 
and  capable  of  becoming  a  very  formidable  ad- 
versary. The  worthy  Talleyrand  accordingly 
began  to  cast  about  for  some  means  by  which 
he  could  reestablish  friendly  relations,  at  the 
lowest  possible  cost  to  the  pockets  and  the  feel- 
ings of  the  French  people  and  of  himself.  By 
circuitous  channels,  but  in  direct  terms,  he  con- 
veyed to  Mr.  Adams  the  fact  that  the  govern- 


214  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ment  would  be  glad  to  receive  an  American 
envoy  with  all  the  respect  and  honor  to  which 
he  was  entitled.  Acting  on  this  information, 
and  without  a  word  to  any  one,  not  even  to  his 
cabinet,  the  President  sent  in  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Vans  Murray  to  be  minister  to  France. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  honorable  peace 
was  then,  as  in  Washington's  time,  the  para- 
mount consideration.  Whether  it  was  wise  to 
snap  at  the  very  first  opportunity  held  out  by 
France  is  more  questionable.  John  Adams  cer- 
tainly believed  it  to  be  so,  but  his  haste,  secrecy, 
and  the  abrupt  change  from  his  recent  utter- 
ances, make  it  impossible  not  to  suppose  that 
one  strong  motive  for  this  sudden  action  was 
to  be  found  in  his  belief  that  peace  would  crip- 
ple the  war  party,  including  Hamilton,  and  all 
others  who  differed  with  him.  But  admitting 
that  John  Adams  was  not  only  right  in  princi- 
ple, but  also  in  the  selection  of  the  moment  for 
making  peace,  yet  his  mode  of  doing  right  was 
utterly  and  hopelessly  wrong.  If  his  cabinet 
agreed  with  him,  then  concealment  was  useless  ; 
if  they  were  certain  to  oppose  him,  then  con- 
cealment may  have  been  shrewd  and  cunning, 
but  it  was  neither  very  wise  nor  very  brave. 
In  any  event,  it  rent  asunder  hopelessly  the 
already  distracted  Federalists.  It  fell  upon 
the  unsuspecting  party  with  the  suddenness  cf 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION        215 

a  bolt  of  lightning.  They  were  stunned  by  the 
shock,  and  their  first  thought  was  to  defeat  the 
President  in  the  Senate,  and  to  break  down  his 
policy  and  him  together.  These  were  the  views 
of  men  who  believed  a  war  with  France  to  be 
a  good  thing  in  itself,  because  it  was  the  only 
sure  salvation  from  the  pestilent  ideas  of  Paris. 
They  would  have  had  us  ally  ourselves  with 
England,  because  it  behooved  all  decent  people 
throughout  the  world  to  stand  together  and 
stamp  out  the  monstrous  doctrines  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

No  man  hated  those  doctrines  and  principles 
more  fervently  than  Hamilton,  and  no  one  sacri- 
ficed more  than  he  to  opposition  to  the  propa- 
ganda of  unbridled  democracy  and  consequent 
anarchy.  But,  except  on  one  or  two  occasions, 
the  statesman  always  prevailed  with  Hamilton. 
Except  in  the  case  of  a  common  war  against 
France  when  the  results  would  bring  vast  and 
immediate  benefits  to  the  United  States,  he  had 
no  mind  for  an  alliance  with  England,  much 
as  he  applauded  her  as  the  defender  of  society. 
He  was,  on  the  contrary,  disposed  to  be  cool  to> 
ward  her  because,  with  a  stupidity  really  exqui- 
site, she  had  begun,  just  as  we  were  embroiled 
with  France,  once  more  to  annoy  and  provoke  us 
with  outrageous  orders  in  council.  Hamilton's 
general  policy,  therefore,  was  the  maintenance 


216  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  a  strong  dignified  attitude,  backed  by  armed 
men  and  ships,  and  then  a  quiet  waiting  until 
France  should  come  to  her  senses  and  send  a 
minister  to  us.  He  never  believed  war  to  be  a 
good  thing  in  itself,  as  did  some  of  his  more 
extreme  partisans,  who  were  as  headstrong  and 
unruly  in  their  way  as  the  President  was  in  his ; 
but  he  regarded  peace  now  and  always  as  the 
first  object.  In  this  he  was  not  only  wise  but 
consistent  with  his  past.  At  the  same  time  the 
sudden  change  of  Adams,  his  eager  grasp  at 
the  earliest  symptom  of  returning  decency  in  the 
French  government,  disappointed  and  angered 
Hamilton  as  a  hasty,  needless  step,  and  an  un- 
called-for sacrifice  of  a  dignity  which  might 
have  been  scrupulously  maintained  and  much 
enhanced  without  endangering  a  speedy  and  last- 
ing peace.  His  wrath  was  still  further  kindled 
by  the  foolish  and  offensive  method  of  action 
adopted  by  the  President. 

But  even  in  bitterness  and  anger  the  states- 
man was  still  uppermost.  Hamilton  may  not 
have  been  the  idol  of  the  masses,  nor  a  skillful 
manager  of  men ;  but  there  was  one  set  of  men 
whom  he  knew  thoroughly,  and  those  were  the 
leaders  of  his  own  party.  He  knew  them  to 
be  capable  of  becoming  very  dangerous,  and  he 
saw  them  now  on  the  point  of  rising  upon  the 
President  and  beating  him  and  the  party  to  the 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         217 

earth  together.  Checking  his  own  feelings,  but 
without  attempting  to  conceal  his  indignation, 
he  took  the  ground  with  the  Federalists  at 
Philadelphia,  that  peace  with  honor  was  now, 
as  always,  our  first  object,  and  that  this  step 
toward  it,  however  unwisely  it  had  been  taken, 
was  nevertheless  beyond  recall.  The  true  policy 
now  was  to  make  the  best  of  what  had  been 
done,  and  treat  for  peace  as  it  should  be  treated 
for.  To  send  Murray  alone  was  absurd  ;  it  was 
the  idea  of  a  man  blinded  with  haste  and  anger. 
Let  a  suitable  commission  be  chosen  and  sent, 
if  circumstances  still  continued  favorable.  The 
party  leaders  fell  in  with  Hamilton's  views,  and, 
Adams  himself  becoming  aware  of  the  error 
of  committing  this  charge  to  Murray  alone, 
a  strong  commission  was  nominated  and  con- 
firmed. It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
Hamilton's  prompt  decision,  his  wisdom  and 
statesmanship,  saved  the  party  at  this  moment 
from  an  immediate  wreck,  which  he  might  very 
readily  and  naturally  have  precipitated. 

There  was  some  delay  in  sending  the  commis- 
sioners, owing  to  the  unsettled  state  of  France, 
and  then  came  another  revolution,  which  led 
the  Federalists  to  believe  that  there  ought  to 
be  a  further  suspension  of  the  embassy.  Ham- 
ilton even  went  to  Trenton  to  urge  delay ;  but 
Adams,  irritated,  beyond  endurance  by  the  stub- 


218  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

born  and  exasperating  resistance  of  the  war 
party,  as  represented  by  Ms  secretaries,  treated 
counsel  and  opposition  alike  with  contempt,  and 
ordered  the  envoys  away.  Thus  ended  the  first 
great  struggle  over  our  relations  with  France. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  from  the  arrival  of  Genet 
to  the  departure  of  this  last  commission  which 
effected  a  treaty,  the  Federalist  policy  had  been 
a  masterpiece  at  once  bold  and  sagacious,  and 
one  from  which  the  country  reaped  great  and 
lasting  benefit.  But  behind  the  fair  exterior 
of  success  was  the  triumphant  party  torn  with 
bitter  dissensions,  which  were  sapping  its  life 
even  in  the  moment  of  victory. 

In  another  direction  the  policy  of  the  Feder- 
alists, although  giving  rise  to  no  quarrels,  but 
meeting,  on  the  contrary,  with  general  approval 
in  the  party,  became  the  most  efficient  cause  of 
their  subsequent  ruin.  The  publication  of  the 
X.  Y.  Z.  letters,  and  the  flight  of  members  of 
the  opposition  from  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  left  absolute  control  with  the  Federalists. 
They  had  b^en  accustomed  to  winning  battle 
after  battle,  but  they  had  always  been  in  the 
minority,  and  the  want  of  numbers  was  a  severe 
and  wholesome  discipline  which  cultivated  in 
that  party  a  prudence  to  which  by  nature  they 
were  not  much  given.  An  absolute  majority 
and  the  irresistible  rise  of  public  opinion  against 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION        219 

France  turned  their  heads.  They  did  not  lose 
their  wits,  but  they  became  more  masterful  and 
overbearing  than  ever.  They  rapidly  pushed 
through  bills  for  an  army,  a  navy,  and  fortifica- 
tions, as  well  as  a  naturalization  law  which  re- 
quired fourteen  years'  residence,  many  of  them 
urging  the  refusal  of  citizenship  to  foreigners 
altogether.  So  far  no  harm  had  been  done ;  but 
they  next  resolved  to  strike  at  the  vile  libels 
which  had  been  poured  forth  by  the  opposition 
press  upon  Washington,  and  upon  every  other 
honored  name,  and  at  the  foreigners  who  wrote 
the  libels  or  propagated  French  doctrines  and 
set  agitation  on  foot.  With  this  object  they  en- 
acted the  famous  Alien  and  Sedition  laws.  In 
their  first  draft  these  laws  were  intolerable. 
The  Federalists  in  Congress  were  guided  by  the 
members  of  the  extreme  war  party,  and  were 
now  in  a  very  rash  mood,  so  that  Hamilton  was 
much  alarmed  by  these  bills,  and  wrote  urgently 
in  favor  of  modifications.  Of  the  Alien  Act, 
and  the  mode  of  its  execution,  he  said,  "  Let  us 
not  be  cruel  or  violent."  In  the  first  draft  of 
the  Sedition  Act  he  saw  danger  of  civil  war,  and 
said :  "  Let  us  not  establish  a  tyranny.  Energy 
is  a  very  different  thing  from  violence."  This 
was  the  language  of  a  statesman.  But  when 
the  laws  were  modified  and  passed,  they  and  the 
principles  which  they  involved  received  Hamil- 
ton's entire  support. 


220  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

There  has  been  a  general  effort  on  the  part 
of  biographers  to  clear  their  respective  heroes 
from  all  responsibility  for  these  ill-fated  mea- 
sures. The  truth  is,  that  they  had  the  full 
support  of  the  congressmen  and  senators  who 
passed  them,  of  the  President  who  signed  them, 
and  of  the  leaders  in  the  States,  who  almost  all 
believed  in  them ;  and  they  also  met  with  very 
general  acceptance  by  the  party  in  the  North. 
Hamilton  went  as  far  in  the  direction  of  sus- 
taining the  principle  of  these  laws  as  any  one. 
He  had  too  acute  a  mind  to  believe,  with  many 
of  the  stanch  Federalist  divines  of  New  Eng- 
land, that  Jefferson  and  Madison  were  Marats 
and  Robespierres,  and  that  their  followers  were 
Jacobins,  who,  when  they  came  to  power,  were 
ready  for  the  overthrow  of  religion  and  soci- 
ety, and  were  prepared  to  set  up  a  guillotine 
and  pour  out  blood  in  the  waste  places  of  the 
federal  city.  But  he  did  believe,  and  so  wrote 
to  Washington,  after  the  appearance  of  the 
X.  Y.  Z.  letters,  that  there  was  a  party  in  the 
country  ready  to  "  new  model  "  the  Constitution 
on  French  principles,  to  form  an  offensive  and 
defensive  alliance  with  France,  and  make  the 
United  States  a  French  province.  He  felt,  in 
short,  that  there  was  a  party  in  America  ready 
for  confiscation  and  social  confusion.  A  year 
later,  in  1799,  he  wrote  to  Dayton,  the  speaker 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         221 

of  the  national  House  of  Representatives,  a  long 
letter,  in  which  he  set  forth  very  clearly  the 
policy  which  he  felt  ought  to  be  pursued.  He 
wished  to  give  strength  to  the  government,  and 
increase  centralization  by  every  means,  by  an 
extension  of  the  national  judiciary,  a  liberal 
system  of  internal  improvements,  an  increased 
and  abundant  revenue,  an  enlargement  of  the 
army  and  navy,  permanence  in  the  laws  for  the 
volunteer  army,  extension  of  the  powers  of  the 
general  government,  subdivision  of  the  States 
as  soon  as  practicable,  and  finally  a  strong  sedi- 
tion law,  and  the  power  to  banish  aliens.  This 
was  what  was  termed  at  that  day  a  "strong 
and  spirited  "  policy  ;  it  would  now  be  called  re- 
pressive ;  but  by  whatever  name  it  is  designated, 
it  was  the  policy  of  Hamilton,  and  is  charac- 
teristic of  both  his  talents  and  temperament. 
Except  as  to  the  subdivision  of  States,  it  was 
carried  out  pretty  thoroughly  in  all  its  main 
features  by  the  Federalists. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws,  although  resisted 
in  Congress,  did  not  much  affect  public  opinion 
at  the  elections  which  immediately  ensued,  and 
the  Federalists  came  into  the  next  Congress 
with  a  large  majority.  Numbers,  however, 
availed  them  little.  In  the  worst  days  of  their 
minority  period  they  were  more  effective  as  a 
party.  The  jealousies  and  quarrels  already  on 


222  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

foot  came  to  a  fierce  culmination  on  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  second  mission  to  France.  The 
moderate  Federalists  of  the  South,  headed  by 
Marshall,  sustained  the  President,  while  the  war 
party  urged  his  destruction.  It  was  a  house 
divided  against  itself,  and  at  a  time  when  violent 
measures  had  so  lessened  the  great  advantages 
of  the  last  election  that  the  Federalists  entered 
upon  the  presidential  campaign  with  but  a  nar- 
row margin  for  success.  Jefferson  sounded  the 
alarm  in  the  famous  Kentucky  resolutions.  The 
doctrine  was  bad  enough,  but  it  was  probably 
merely  intended  to  attract  attention  to  the  rapid 
development  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  central 
government.  The  resolutions  of  both  Kentucky 
and  Virginia  were  received  with  little  favor 
anywhere,  and  in  many  States  with  strong  and 
formal  reprobation.  Hamilton,  more  deeply 
stirred  by  a  movement  for  disunion  than  he 
could  be  by  anything  else,  regarded  these  reso- 
lutions as  of  great  gravity,  and  urged  that  they 
be  formally  disapproved  by  Congress  and  their 
evil  tendencies  fully  displayed. 

Jefferson,  however,  had  achieved  his  purpose. 
The  suspicions  of  the  country  were  awakened 
to  the  meaning  and  possible  results  of  such 
legislation  as  the  Alien  and  Sedition  acts,  and 
to  the  centralizing  policy  of  the  Federalists. 
The  approach  of  peace,  moreover,  relaxed  the 


THE  ADAMS   ADMINISTRATION         223 

spirit  which  had  rallied  the  masses  to  the  side  of 
the  Federalists  as  the  defenders  of  the  national 
honor.  Slowly,  but  surely,  the  dominant  party 
was  losing  ground  in  public  opinion.  Pennsyl- 
vania slipped  from  them  at  the  state  election, 
and  this  made  a  victory  in  New  York  of  the 
very  last  importance.  Hamilton  threw  himself 
into  the  struggle  with  an  energy  and  fire  great 
even  for  him.  But  he  was  now  opposed  to  one 
who  was  the  first  and  by  no  means  the  least 
in  a  long  list  of  men,  some  of  great  ability  and 
distinction,  who  have  risen  to  power  and  place 
chiefly  by  capacity  for  guiding  the  dark  and 
complicated  intrigues  of  New  York  politics.  In 
these  Aaron  Burr  was  a  master.  The  election 
turned  largely  on  the  result  in  the  city,  and  in 
ward  politics  Hamilton  was  no  match  for  his 
antagonist.  Hamilton  could  neither  trade,  bar- 
gain, nor  deal  with  petty  factions.  Such  work 
was  unworthy  of  his  powerful  intellect,  and  the 
sacrifice  did  not  even  bring  the  poor  reward  of 
success.  With  voice  and  pen  Hamilton  main- 
tained the  conflict.  His  eloquence  was  unri- 
valed, his  arguments,  written  and  spoken,  were 
unanswerable,  but  Burr  had  the  votes.  New 
York  was  lost  to  the  Federalists  and  ruin  stared 
them  in  the  face. 

In  the  bitterness  and  passion  of  defeat  Ham- 
ilton proposed  to  Governor  Jay  to  call  together 


224  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  old  legislature  and  give  the  choice  of  presi- 
dential electors  to  districts,  thus  dividing  the 
vote  of  New  York,  which  would  otherwise  be 
settled  by  the  incoming  legislature,  who  would 
choose  none  but  Democrats.  Jay  very  frankly 
declined  to  consider  the  scheme,  as  one  wholly 
'Improper.  The  proposition  was,  in  fact,  nothing 
!.ess  than  to  commit,  under  the  forms  of  law,  a 
fraud,  which  would  set  aside  the  expressed  will 
of  a  majority  of  the  voters  in  the  State.  This 
is  the  one  dark  blot  upon  the  public  career  of 
Hamilton.  It  is  no  palliation  to  say  that  he 
was  urged  to  it  by  the  Federalist  members  of 
Congress.  The  error  of  a  great  leader  cannot 
be  excused  by  saying  that  lesser  men  advised 
him  to  it.  Many  times  before  Hamilton  had 
stepped  in  boldly  and  had  effectually  checked 
the  rash  and  headstrong  impulses  of  his  more 
extreme  friends  at  Philadelphia.  He  now  fell 
in  with  them  in  support  of  this  high-handed 
measure.  It  was  he  who  advised  it  with  Jay, 
it  was  he  who  urged  its  prosecution,  and  on  his 
shoulders  must  rest  the  responsibility.  Hamil- 
ton was  too  clear-sighted  even  then  to  attempt 
to  disguise  the  character  of  the  scheme.  He 
says  plainly  to  Jay,  we  must  not  be  "over- 
scrupulous," and  then  adduces  a  great  many 
lucid  and  ingenious  reasons  to  show  that  this  is 
a  time  when  to  do  a  great  right  one  is  justified 


THE  ADAMS   ADMINISTRATION         225 

in  doing  a  little  wrong.  Arguments  on  that  side 
of  the  question  were  not  wanting;  they  never 
are  to  the  champions  of  order,  the  saviors  of 
society,  the  "  strong  men,"  and  the  imperialists 
of  this  world.  That  Hamilton  was  carried  away 
by  a  passion  of  disappointment  when  he  wrote 
this  letter  is  no  doubt  true,  but  the  root  of  the 
matter  lay  still  deeper.  The  bitterness  of  de- 
feat and  the  readiness  to  use  violent  means  to 
recover  lost  ground  sprang  from  the  belief,  fos- 
tered and  developed  in  Hamilton's  mind  by  the 
French  Revolution,  that  there  was  a  party  in 
this  country  of  democracy,  license,  and  anarchy, 
that  its  victory  meant  ruin  to  the  state,  and 
that  salvation  could  only  be  assured  by  the  con- 
tinuance in  power  of  the  party  of  order  and 
Federalism.  This  frame  of  mind  is  not  uncom- 
mon in  the  history  of  party  conflicts,  but  in 
the  days  of  the  "  Great  Monster,"  as  Hamilton 
called  the  French  Republic,  it  was  intensified  to 
a  degree  and  carried  to  an  extent  hardly  ever 
known  before  or  since.  That  this  dread  of  the 
success  of  the  other  side  in  a  representative  gov- 
ernment should  have  led  such  a  man  as  Hamil- 
ton to  make  a  proposition  like  that  contained  in 
the  letter  to  Jay,  is  a  most  melancholy  example 
of  the  power  and  the  danger  of  such  sentiments, 
which  are  wholly  foreign  to  free  constitutional 
systems. 


226  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

But  even  while  the  fortunes  of  the  party  were 
thus  declining,  they  were  hurried  still  faster  on 
their  downward  course  by  the  ever-increasing 
bitterness  and  the  greater  openness  of  the  quar- 
rels among  the  leaders.  The  nomination  of  the 
peace  commission  led  to  violent  attacks  upon 
the  President  by  Pickering,  who  seems  to  have 
resolved  to  break  him  down,  and  these  attacks, 
made  in  private  letters,  were  now  circulated 
with  but  little  pretense  of  secrecy  among  the 
New  England  leaders.  Immediately  after  the 
New  York  election,  which  crippled  Hamilton  by 
depriving  him  of  the  control  of  the  vote  of  that 
State  in  the  electoral  college,  Adams  drove  Mc- 
Henry  and  Pickering  from  his  cabinet.  This 
deepened  the  feud,  and  Adams,  irritated  by  the 
assaults  of  his  opponents,  gave  loose  to  his  own 
tongue,  at  all  times  a  rather  unruly  member. 
Among  other  abusive  things,  he  called  his  oppo- 
nents a  British  faction,  and  stigmatized  Hamil- 
ton, in  particular,  as  acting  in  the  interests  of 
England.  This  attack  soon  reached  Hamilton's 
ears,  and  in  view  of  its  source  he  felt  that  it 
could  not  be  passed  over  in  silence.  He  accord- 
ingly wrote  a  brief  note,  stating  that  he  had 
heard  the  reported  accusation  of  the  President, 
and  inquiring  if  the  report  were  true.  Receiv- 
ing no  reply  he  again  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams, 
repeating  his  question  and  denying  the  truth  of 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION        2i7 

the  alleged  charge.  Both  notes  were  courteous 
and  straightforward,  but  they  were  passed  over 
in  complete  silence.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  there  was  no  open  breach  between  the  Pre- 
sident and  Hamilton.  Their  relations  were  as 
yet  friendly,  in  form  at  least.  Moreover,  only 
a  short  time  before,  Mr.  Adams  had  written 
to  Hamilton  asking  his  assistance  in  securing 
for  Colonel  Smith,  the  President's  son-in-law,  a 
desirable  position  in  the  army.  Hamilton  had 
cheerfully  and  generously  given  his  services,  and 
his  note  was  pleasant  and  friendly.  Yet,  with 
this  incident  fresh  in  his  mind,  Mr.  Adams  did 
not  hesitate  to  refuse  to  notice  a  proper  and 
reasonable  question  asked  by  the  principal  offi- 
cer of  the  army,  who  was  also  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  in  the  country.  To  say  that 
such  treatment  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Adams  was 
uncivil,  is  but  little.  It  was  a  gross  blunder, 
and  was  unfortunately  of  a  piece  with  all  Mr. 
Adams's  conduct  towards  Hamilton.  When  the 
latter  came  to  Trenton  to  urge  the  suspension 
of  the  peace  commission,  Mr.  Adams  referred  to 
his  visit  with  a  pitying  sneer.  Hamilton  was 
the  most  powerful  leader  of  the  Federalists ;  he 
was  the  most  conspicuous  and  brilliant  states- 
man in  the  country ;  and  yet  the  President,  the 
head  of  the  Federalist  party,  first  undertook  to 
ignore  him,  then  slighted  his  advice  and  derided 


228  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

him,  and  finally  treated  his  manly  inquiry  with 
contemptuous  silence.  Decency,  prudence,  and 
self-interest,  to  take  no  higher  motives,  dictated 
an  opposite  course.  I  am  very  far  from  holding 
Mr.  Adams  solely  responsible  for  the  downfall 
of  the  Federalists,  but  his  treatment  of  Ham- 
ilton, tried  merely  by  the  test  of  statesman- 
ship and  good  politics,  shows  how  completely  he 
failed  as  a  leader  of  men,  and  how  he  became, 
despite  all  his  courage,  honesty,  and  abilities,  a 
principal  cause  in  the  ruin  of  the  party. 

Quarrels  like  these  could  not  long  be  confined 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  leaders.  They  were 
sure  to  break  out  and,  coming  to  the  surface  be- 
fore the  public,  to  work  all  the  vast  mischief  of 
which  they  were  capable.  They  reached  their 
height  just  as  the  presidential  election  drew 
near.  To  throw  Adams  over  meant  an  open 
split  and  certain  defeat,  and  the  leaders  in  Con- 
gress with  much  misgiving,  and  on  the  part  of 
many  with  no  great  good-will,  resolved  to  sup- 
port him  again  as  a  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dency, in  conjunction  with  Charles  Cotesworth 
Pinckney  for  Vice-President.  Hamilton  made 
the  best  of  what  seemed  to  him  a  very  bad 
business.  Even  after  the  loss  of  New  York, 
there  was  still  a  chance  for  the  Federalists  if 
South  Carolina  would  vote  for  both  candidates. 
Hamilton  urged,  therefore,  once  more,  an  equal 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         229 

vote  for  both  Pinckney  and  Adams,  and  again 
it  may  be  said  that  his  policy  was  the  only  one 
which  could  have  secured  success.  It  was  gen- 
erally supposed,  however,  that  this  course  would 
result  in  the  election  of  Pinckney,  a  result  which 
Hamilton  openly  preferred.  It  was  bad  enough 
to  have  this  preference  for  Pinckney  generally 
known ;  but  Hamilton  was  now  so  thoroughly 
enraged  and  scr  completely  alienated  from  the 
President  that  he  went  still  farther  and  wrote  a 
pamphlet  designed  to  show  up  Mr.  Adams's  fail- 
ings, and  to  vindicate  his  own  position  and  that 
of  the  war  Federalists. 

The  project  was  so  utterly  wild  that  every 
effort  was  made  to  dissuade  Hamilton  from  his 
purpose.  The  disapprobation,  indeed,  was  so 
general  that  even  he  resolved  at  the  last  mo- 
ment to  limit  the  circulation  of  this  effusion 
to  a  few  friends.  But  it  was  too  late.  Burr, 
through  his  agents,  stole  a  copy,  and  the  pam- 
phlet appeared.  This  famous  production  is  a 
defense  of  the  war  Federalists  and  a  personal 
attack  on  Mr.  Adams.  A  good  deal  of  the  cen- 
sure was  just  enough,  but  the  pamphlet  as  a 
whole  was  a  piece  of  passionate  folly.  Hamilton 
denounced  as  unsafe,  violent,  vain,  and  egotistic, 
a  Federalist  President  whose  general  public  pol- 
icy all  Federalists  supported ;  and  then  wound 
up  his  bitter  diatribe  with  the  lame  and  impo- 


230  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

tent  conclusion  of  advising  every  one  to  vote  for 
the  man  so  much  to  be  distrusted.  The  whole 
thing  was  simple  self-stultification,  and  the  pam- 
phlet met  with  no  favor  except  among  the  Dem- 
ocrats. Even  Hamilton's  closest  friends  were 
frightened  and  displeased.  If  the  Federalists 
had  openly  divided,  and  the  two  wings  had  en- 
gaged in  controversy,  a  polemic  of  this  sort  might 
have  seemed  natural.  But  for  one  great  leader 
to  publish  such  an  attack  upon  another,  when 
the  party  was  formally  in  harmony  and  upon 
the  eve  of  a  close  and  doubtful  contest  for  the 
presidency,  was  simple  madness.  It  was  the 
work  of  a  man  crazed  with  passion  and  bent  on 
revenge. 

This  unhappy  incident  cannot  be  dismissed 
without  a  word  upon  Hamilton's  relations  with 
the  cabinet.  It  has  been  charged  that  in  this 
respect  he  acted  in  bad  faith.  That  the  cabi- 
net officers  went  too  far  in  furnishing  Hamilton, 
and  others  also,  with  all  sorts  of  information 
which  came  to  them  in  a  confidential  capacity, 
\*ill  not,  I  think,  be  questioned.  It  is  not  ap- 
parent, however,  that  Hamilton  made  any  im- 
proper use  of  this  information ;  for  although 
he  was  anxious  enough  for  material,  there  was 
none  to  be  had  which  was  of  peculiar  value  or 
novelty.  But  there  is  no  ground  for  accusing 
Hamilton  of  bad  faith  in  this  particular.  He 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION         231 

made  a  mistake  in  trying,  through  his  influence 
with  the  cabinet,  to  force  the  President's  hand  ; 
but  he  had  a  perfect  right,  as  a  party  leader, 
to  correspond  with  the  secretaries,  and  to  give 
them  his  opinions  and  advice  on  political  ques- 
tions. He  had  done  the  same  thing  in  Wash- 
ington's time,  and  no  one  has  ever  hinted  that 
there  was  any  impropriety  in  it.  The  fact  that 
he  was  not  personally  on  good  terms  with  Ad- 
ams does  not  affect  the  matter.  Hamilton  was 
fully  entitled  to  write  private  letters  to  members 
of  the  cabinet,  and  they  had  a  right  to  receive 
them.  The  fact  that  the  secretaries,  after  they 
found  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  President, 
ought  to  have  retired,  is  a  wholly  distinct  mat- 
ter, and  must  be  discussed  on  different  grounds. 
If  they  chose  to  be  guided  by  Hamilton,  a  pri- 
vate individual  and  unofficial  leader,  that  was 
their  affair,  not  his.  The  pamphlet  against 
Adams  was  passionate,  foolish,  and  contradictory 
in  itself,  and  it  placed  Hamilton  in  a  weak  and 
false  position,  but  it  was  an  open  attack,  and 
was  not  liable  to  the  charge  of  bad  faith. 

If  anything  was  needed  to  make  the  over- 
throw of  the  Federalists  certain,  this  unfortu- 
nate pamphlet  would  have  done  it.  But  the 
party's  doom  was  already  sealed.  South  Caro- 
lina would  vote  only  for  a  Southern  man,  and 
Pinekney,  with  the  chivalrous  sense  of  duty 


232  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

which  he  always  displayed,  refused  to  be  sepa* 
rated  from  Adams.  The  result  was  the  defeat 
of  the  candidates  of  the  Federalists,  and  the  close 
of  their  party  career  as  rulers  of  national  poli- 
tics. The  struggle  of  the  election  did  not,  how- 
ever, come  to  an  end  in  the  electoral  colleges. 
The  equal  vote  received  by  Burr  and  Jefferson 
threw  the  final  decision  into  the  House  of  Re- 
presentatives, and  the  former  began  at  once  to 
sound  his  way  toward  an  arrangement  which 
should  bring  him  in  as  president  over  Jefferson. 
The  Federalists  in  Congress,  maddened  and 
reckless  by  defeat,  turned  with  avidity  to  the 
chance  of  snatching  the  office  from  their  arch- 
enemy Jefferson.  The  crisis  was  very  grave, 
and  indeed  threatened  civil  war.  Once  more 
the  Federalists  at  Washington  were  running 
to  perilous  extremes,  and  once  more  Hamilton 
checked  them.  ^The  wild  passion  which  had 
led  him  into  the  attack  on  Adams  had  spent  it- 
self, and  he  was  again  the  cool,  wise,  far-seeing 
statesman  with  his  prejudices  and  impulses  under 
the  control  of  reason.  He  knew  that  Jefferson 
was  the  fairly  chosen  President,  and  that  such 
was  the  intention  of  the  people.  He  saw  the 
danger  which  setting  Jefferson  aside  by  an  in- 
trigue would  bring.  Much  as  he  disliked  the 
man,  he  knew  that  his  former  colleague  was 
timid,  cautious,  and  trained  in  politics  of  the 


THE  ADAMS  ADMINISTRATION        233 

better  sort.  He  also  knew  Burr,  and  rightly 
believed  the  hero  of  New  York  city  politics  to 
be  shallow,  dangerous,  and  utterly  unscrupulous* 
Putting  aside  all  personal  feeling,  he  threw  him- 
self into  the  conflict  and  exerted  his  powerful 
influence  to  check  the  mad  projects  of  the  Fed- 
eralists. His  intervention  probably  had  a  de- 
cisive effect.  It  was  certainly  courageous,  high- 
minded,  and  such  as  became  the  distinguished 
leader  of  a  great  party.  After  the  storm  of  the 
election  and  the  bitterness  of  party  faction,  it 
was  a  fit  conclusion  to  Hamilton's  career  as  a 
public  man,  which  practically  ended  with  the 
downfall  of  his  party. 


CHAPTER  X 

PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  —  DUEL  AND  DEATH 

THE  defeat  of  the  Federalists  left  Hamilton 
wholly  free  to  devote  himself  to  the  practice 
of  the  law.  Fortunately  for  him,  his  work  was 
something  very  different  from  the  merely  nom- 
inal occupation  which  retired  statesmen  and  dis- 
appointed politicians  sometimes  dignify  by  the 
name  of  "their  profession."  The  prescriptive 
laws  against  Tories,  as  has  been  said,  had  given 
to  Hamilton,  Burr,  and  a  few  others  complete 
possession  of  the  New  York  practice  after  the 
Kevolution,  and  Hamilton  had  not  neglected 
the  opportunity  thus  offered.  While  deeply 
engaged  in  the  work  of  the  Constitution,  he 
labored  at  his  profession,  in  which  he  had  been 
the  leader  almost  from  his  first  appearance. 
He  laid  aside  a  lucrative  practice  when  he  took 
the  treasury,  and,  having  exhausted  his  savings 
while  in  office,  returned  to  the  bar  a  poor  man, 
with  his  mind  fixed  on  making  money  and  fame 
as  a  lawyer.  With  his  brilliant  reputation  as  a 
public  man  and  party  leader,  he  at  once  re- 
ceived more  business  than  he  had  left  in  1789. 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  235 

In  a  few  months  he  was  again  at  the  head  of  the 
bar,  and  master  of  a  large  and  growing  practice. 
After  the  election  of  Jefferson  he  became  even 
more  absorbed  in  the  law  than  before,  and 
drifted  steadily  out  of  the  current  of  public  af- 
fairs. With  this  he  was  now  well  content.  He 
said  with  truth  that  he  had  no  desire  to  reenter 
public  life,  unless  called  forth  by  the  contin- 
gency of  a  foreign  or  civil  war.  Unfortunately 
for  himself,  he  considered  the  latter  misfortune 
only  too  likely  to  happen. 

Much  might  be  written  of  Hamilton  as  a  law- 
yer. His  professional  success  has  been  dimmed 
by  the  brilliancy  of  his  career  as  a  statesman ; 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  deserves  a 
very  high  place  among  those  Americans  who 
have  been  most  distinguished  at  the  bar.  As  a 
constitutional  lawyer  it  is  not  necessary  to  go 
beyond  the  argument  on  the  national  bank  to 
show  a  capacity  in  this  direction  of  the  very  first 
order.  Hamilton's  powers  of  statement  and  of 
clear,  cogent  reasoning  were  admirably  adapted 
for  arguments  to  the  court  on  points  of  law  and 
equity,  and  in  this  field  he  shone  from  the  out- 
set. Fortunately,  we  have  proof  of  his  power 
before  the  court  and  also  of  his  effectiveness 
with  a  jury,  the  most  evanescent  form  of  legal 
ability,  in  two  very  famous  cases  which  were  of 
sufficient  importance  to  escape  oblivion. 


236  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

One  was  a  prosecution  for  libel  directed 
against  Henry  Croswell,  the  Federalist  editor  of 
a  small  local  journal.  The  obnoxious  paragraph 
was  to  the  effect  that  Jefferson  had  paid  Callen- 
der  to  slander  Washington  and  Adams.  This 
statement  was  not  particularly  outrageous,  if 
compared  to  those  which  filled  the  newspapers 
on  both  sides  at  that  time,  and  it  had  moreover 
already  appeared  in  substance  in  the  "  New  York 
Evening  Post."  But  the  Democratic  leaders, 
now  that  they  had  come  to  power,  were  resolved 
to  try  their  hand  at  muzzling  the  press  and 
putting  a  stop  to  the  stinging  attacks  of  their 
opponents.  They,  therefore,  selected  a  weak 
assailant,  and  prepared  to  make  an  example 
of  him  for  the  benefit  of  the  Federalist  editors. 
With  a  Democratic  sheriff,  Democratic  grand 
jury,  and  Democratic  judge,  they  obtained  an 
indictment,  after  exhibiting  a  rough  disregard 
of  the  rights  of  the  defendant.  When  the  case 
came  to  trial,  Hamilton,  who  had  been  urged  to 
assume  the  defense,  was  unable  to  appear,  and 
the  prosecution  was  pushed  unrelentingly.  Cros- 
well's  counsel  asked  for  time,  in  order  to  get 
witnesses  from  Virginia  to  testify  to  the  truth 
of  the  libel ;  but  Judge  Lewis  held  that  the 
jury  were  judges  only  of  the  fact,  and  not  of 
the  truth  or  intent  of  the  publication.  After 
a  night's  deliberation  the  jury  found  Croswell 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  237 

guilty,  and  his  counsel  at  once  moved  for  a 
new  trial  on  the  ground  of  misdirection  by  the 
judge.  The  ruling  of  Judge  Lewis  was  in  di- 
rect contradiction  of  the  famous  New  York 
precedent  established  in  the  Zenger  trial,  but 
it  found  support  in  the  law  of  England.  The 
issue  raised  the  great  question  of  general  ver- 
dicts, on  which  Erskine  won  his  renown  and 
stemmed  the  tide  of  reactionary  violence  in  Lon- 
don. It  appealed  to  Hamilton  both  as  a  lawyer 
and  statesman,  and  as  the  consistent  friend  of  a 
free  press  in  accordance  with  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  true  principles  of  the  common  law. 
He  therefore  laid  everything  aside  in  order  to 
make  the  principal  argument  in  support  of  the 
motion  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Albany. 
The  case  excited  intense  interest.  Every  one 
flocked  to  the  court  room,  and  the  legislature 
could  not  obtain  a  quorum.  Hamilton  closed 
the  case,  and  the  court  adjourned  the  first  day 
before  he  had  finished  his  address.  He  con- 
cluded the  next  morning,  and  occupied  in  all 
six  hours.  His  argument  was  a  splendid  piece 
of  reasoning  and  eloquence,  marked  by  all  the 
qualities  of  thought  and  expression  for  which 
he  was  distinguished.  Chancellor  Kent,  whose 
notes  have  preserved  to  us  a  description  of  this 
argument,1  said  that "  it  was  the  greatest  forensic 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  C. 


238  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

effort  Hamilton  ever  made.  He  had  bestowed 
unusual  attention  on  the  case,  and  he  came 
prepared  to  discuss  the  points  of  law  with  a 
perfect  mastery  of  the  subject.  There  was  an 
unusual  solemnity  and  earnestness  on  his  part 
in  the  discussion.  He  was,  at  times,  highly 
impassioned  and  pathetic.  His  whole  soul  was 
enlisted  in  the  cause.  The  aspect  of  the  times 
was  portentous,  and  he  was  persuaded  that  if 
he  could  overthrow  the  high-toned  doctrine  of 
the  judge  it  would  be  a  great  gain  to  the  liber- 
ties of  this  country.  .  .  .  The  anxiety  and  ten- 
derness of  his  feelings,  and  the  gravity  of  his 
theme,  rendered  his  reflections  exceedingly  im- 
pressive. He  never  before  in  my  hearing  made 
any  effort  in  which  he  commanded  higher  rev- 
erence for  his  principles,  nor  equal  admiration 
for  the  power  and  pathos  of  his  eloquence." 
There  is  no  need  to  attempt  any  addition  to  this 
statement.  A  man  who  could  win  praise,  so 
high  and  so  unstinted,  from  such  a  man  as 
Chancellor  Kent,  requires  no  further  testimony 
to  his  rank  and  ability  as  a  great  lawyer. 

The  other  famous  case  which  has  come  down 
to  us,  and  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  was 
a  murder  trial,  which  appealed  strongly  to  the 
interest  and  sympathies  of  the  community,  and 
which  exhibited  Hamilton's  powers  in  a  new 
light,  and  one  very  different  from  that  of  the 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  239 

prosecution  of  Croswell.  The  body  of  a  girl 
was  found  in  a  well,  and  her  lover,  a  young 
mechanic  of  good  character,  was  suspected,  in- 
dicted, and  put  on  trial  for  the  murder.  Ham- 
ilton was  retained  for  the  defense,  the  difficulty 
of  which  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  strong 
popular  feeling  against  his  client.  The  evi- 
dence was  nearly  all  circumstantial,  and  Hamil- 
ton dealt  with  it  as  it  was  put  in  very  effectively, 
and  greatly  impaired  its  effect.  The  govern- 
ment then  called  their  principal  witness,  one 
Croucher,  a  fellow  of  evil  repute  and  on  whose 
direct  testimony  the  verdict  depended.  Hamil- 
ton had  become  convinced  that  Croucher  was 
the  real  culprit,  and  he  knew  that  his  evidence 
was  the  crucial  point  in  the  case.  When  the 
examination  in  chief  was  concluded,  the  night 
was  well  advanced.  Hamilton  sent  for  two  can- 
dles, and  by  placing  one  on  each  side  of  the 
witness  box  threw  Croucher's  face  into  strong 
relief,  and  then  confronted  him  with  a  fixed 
and  piercing  gaze.  Objection  was  made  to  this 
procedure,  but  the  court  overruled  the  objection, 
and  Hamilton  then  said  with  deep  solemnity, 
"I  have  special  reasons,  deep  reasons,  reasons 
that  I  dare  not  express,  reasons  that,  when  the 
real  culprit  is  detected  and  placed  before  the 
court,  will  then  be  understood."  He  paused, 
and  the  attention  of  every  one  was  riveted  in 


240  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

breathless  silence  upon  the  witness.  Hamilton 
continued :  "  The  jury  will  mark  every  muscle 
of  his  face,  every  motion  of  his  eye.  I  conjure 
you  to  look  through  that  man's  countenance 
to  his  conscience."  A  severe  cross-examination 
followed.  The  wretched  witness  stumbled,  con- 
tradicted himself,  and  utterly  broke  down.  The 
jury  acquitted  the  prisoner  without  leaving  their 
seats.  The  subsequent  history  of  Croucher,1  who 
left  the  court  room  covered  with  suspicion  and 
contumely,  justified  Hamilton's  device,  which 
under  ordinary  circumstances  would  not  be  per- 
missible. The  incident  shows  in  Hamilton  that 
quickness  of  apprehension,  force  of  personality, 
and  fertility  of  resource  as  well  as  the  dramatic 
sense,  which  are  all  such  important  and  neces- 
sary qualities  to  great  advocates  before  a  jury. 
These  two  cases,  in  different  ways,  are  good 
illustrations  of  Hamilton's  power  and  success 
at  the  bar. 

The  popular  belief  in  the  certainty  of  Hamil- 
ton's winning  cases  was  extraordinary,  and  while 
it  brought  him  briefs  without  number  it  reveals 
at  the  same  time  the  great  secret  of  his  success  as 
an  advocate.  Men  came  to  think  that,  if  he  ex- 

1  Croucher  was  convicted  of  rape  on  a  child,  was  pardoned, 
went  to  Virginia,  there  committed  a  fraud,  and  fled  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  is  said  to  have  been  executed  for  a  heinous 
crime. 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  241 

jrted  himself,  he  could  compel  any  one,  whether 
judge  or  juryman,  to  agree  with  him.  This  idea 
sprang  from  a  vague  perception  of  what  was,  in 
reality,  the  very  essence  of  Hamilton's  mind  and 
character.  Force  of  intellect  and  force  of  will 
were  the  sources  of  his  success.  Eloquence  he 
had  in  abundance,  but  it  was  that  of  the  par- 
liamentary orator  and  debater  rather  than  that 
of  the  advocate  to  a  jury.  He  was,  above  all 
things,  fitted  for  the  Senate,  and  it  was  the  elo- 
quence of  the  Senate  that  he  brought  into  the 
courts.  He  rarely  attempted  to  deal  with  that 
complicated  machine,  a  jury,  by  any  of  the  vari- 
ous and  difficult  methods  characteristic  of  the 
greatest  advocates ;  but  he  addressed  them  as 
he  did  a  convention,  or  as  he  did  the  public 
when  he  spoke  through  his  essays,  always  rely- 
ing, mainly,  on  his  power  to  carry  conviction  to 
their  reason.  Yet  he  never  forgot,  when  he  was 
speaking,  that  while  he  convinced  he  must  also 
persuade,  that  reason  must  not  only  be  satisfied, 
but  prejudices  subdued.  He  supported  argu- 
ments by  resorting  to  the  emotions.  He  was 
full  of  pathos,  fervor,  and  indignation,  and  when 
he  was  stirred  they  gave  warmth  and  light  to 
all  he  said.  He  never  indulged  in  rhetorical 
flourishes,  and  his  style  was  simple  and  severe. 
He  seldom  sought  to  move  the  passions  of  men 
through  their  imagination.  Directness  was  his 


242  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

most  distinguishing  characteristic,  and  whether 
he  appealed  to  the  head  or  the  heart,  he  went 
straight  to  the  mark.  The  secret  lay  in  the 
force  with  which  he  did  it.  It  was  the  passion- 
ate energy,  the  strong  nature,  the  commanding, 
irresistible  will,  which  carried  his  hearers  by 
storm  when  reasoning  had  made  a  practicable 
breach,  and  these  were  the  qualities  which  made 
men  believe  that  Hamilton  could  extort  assent 
and  compel  submission  from  the  most  stubborn 
and  unwilling  opponent. 

But  while  Hamilton  was  thus  employed  in 
winning  fortune  and  in  adding  the  fame  of  the 
great  lawyer  to  that  of  the  distinguished  states- 
man, while  he  was  ever  withdrawing  more  and 
more  from  politics,  planning  a  great  work  on 
civil  government,  enjoying  his  family  and  or- 
dering the  affairs  of  his  farm,  at  that  moment 
his  fate  was  close  upon  him.  He  continued,  of 
course,  to  take  an  interest  and  a  more  or  less 
active  part  in  public  concerns.  The  Federalists 
broke  up  rapidly  after  their  defeat,  but  he  was 
still  the  trusted  chief  of  all  who  held  together. 
Whenever  the  responsibility  of  leadership  forced 
him  to  act  he  never  shrank  from  the  duty,  and 
it  was  one  of  these  occasions  that  brought  him 
to  his  death. 

Aaron  Burr  defeated  Hamilton  in  the  strug- 
gle for  the  control  of  New  York,  which  cost  the 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  243 

Federalists  the  presidency,  but  he  could  not 
drive  his  great  opponent  from  his  path.  Ham- 
ilton had  stood  between  him  and  a  foreign 
mission,  and  came  again  athwart  his  course 
by  frustrating  his  intrigue  for  the  presidency. 
Thus  baffled  among  the  Federalists,  Burr  turned 
to  his  own  party  only  to  see  his  power  waning, 
and  to  encounter  the  dislike  and  suspicion  of 
Jefferson.  The  crafty  Virginian  was  bent  on 
the  destruction  of  his  would-be  rival,  and  Burr 
soon  found  himself  hopelessly  entangled  in  the 
subtilely  woven  meshes  of  presidential  intrigues, 
and  falling  helplessly  toward  certain  ruin.  To 
extricate  himself  from  the  disastrous  field  of 
national  politics,  he  sought  the  governorship  of 
New  York,  behind  which  was  the  possibility  of  a 
northern  confederacy  and  presidency,  —  a  phan- 
tom evoked  by  the  murmurs  of  secession  now 
heard  among  New  England  leaders.  Again 
Hamilton  arose  and  stood  in  the  way  of  these 
intrigues,  denouncing  the  schemes  of  secession, 
and  so  dividing  the  Federalists  of  New  York  as 
to  give  the  election  to  Lewis,  Burr's  Democratic 
rival.  Then  it  was  that  Burr  determined  upon 
revenge.  Vengeance  must  have  been  his  princi- 
pal if  not  his  only  motive,  inasmuch  as  killing 
Hamilton  was  not  likely  to  improve  his  own  con- 
dition, even  though  it  removed  his  arch  enemy. 
In  1800  there  were  many  stronger  incentives  to 


244  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

call  Hamilton  out  than  in  1804,  but  Burr  had 
then  held  his  peace  and  bided  his  time.  Now, 
however,  his  political  fortunes  were  desperate, 
and  the  obloquy  sure  to  come  upon  him  if  Ham- 
ilton fell  by  his  hand  could  hardly  make  mat- 
ters worse.  With  cool  deliberation  he  set  about 
forcing  a  quarrel.  He  showed  his  purpose 
plainly  enough  by  selecting  a  remark  attributed 
to  Hamilton  at  the  time  of  the  caucuses  held  to 
nominate  candidates  for  the  governorship,  which 
was  really  applicable  to  his  general  public  char- 
acter, was  not  peculiarly  severe,  and  was  per- 
fectly inoffensive,  compared  with  many  of  the 
denunciations  launched  at  him  by  Hamilton  only 
a  few  years  before.  Hamilton  had  no  desire 
to  fight,  but  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  it,  if  he 
admitted  the  force  of  the  code  of  honor,  when 
Burr  was  determined  to  fix  a  quarrel  upon  him. 
There  was  an  exchange  of  letters,  and  finally  a 
meeting  was  arranged. 

Aaron  Burr,  who  was  now  on  the  eve  of 
committing  the  deed  which  has  done  more  than 
anything  else  in  his  worthless  life  to  keep  his 
memory  alive,  belonged  to  a  not  uncommon 
variety  of  the  human  species.  He  was  one  of 
the  conspirator  class  of  which  Napoleon  III. 
furnished  the  most  conspicuous  example  in  mod- 
ern times.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to  portray 
Burr  as  a  being  of  great  but  misguided  intellect, 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  245 

a  human  Mephistopheles,  —  grand,  evil,  mysteri- 
ous. In  reality  he  was  a  shallow  man,  with  a 
superficial  brilliancy,  and  the  conspirator's  tal- 
ent for  intrigue  of  all  sorts.  He  was  a  success- 
ful rake,  —  bad,  unscrupulous,  tricky,  possessing 
what  women  and  young  men  call  "  fascination," 
and  utterly  devoid  of  any  moral  sense.  He 
would  not  stab  or  poison  Hamilton,  for  he  was 
not  a  common  villain,  and  had  a  due  respect  for 
criminal  and  social  law.  But  he  was  perfectly 
ready  to  call  Hamilton  out  and  kill  him  if  he 
could  under  the  rules  of  a  recognized  code. 
This  duel  has  been  often  spoken  of  as  a  murder. 
In  the  forum  of  conscience,  before  the  tribunal 
of  moral  laws,  Burr  was  no  doubt  a  murderer ; 
but  by  the  code  which  he  and  Hamilton  alike 
recognized,  and  by  the  system  under  which  they 
were  brought  up,  Burr  acted  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  his  rights.  Hamilton  certainly  had 
no  ground  to  complain.  He  was  a  fighting 
man,  and  he  had  always  admitted  the  force  of 
the  duelist's  code  of  honor.  Over  and  over 
again  he  had  described  Burr  in  language  which, 
as  he  was  well  aware,  implied  in  that  day  a 
readiness  to  answer  for  it  in  the  field.  The  fact 
that  on  this  occasion  the  words  might  be  con- 
fined strictly  to  Burr's  public  character  availed 
nothing.  Hamilton  had  repeatedly  used  "  fight- 
ing words  "  in  speaking  of  Burr,  and  the  latter 


246  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

had  the  right  to  demand  a  reckoning  for  any  par- 
ticular  sentence  he  might  select.  There  seems 
to  be  little  doubt  that  Burr  had  come  to  Hamil- 
ton not  long  before  in  great  pecuniary  distress? 
and  had  been  relieved  with  that  large-hearted 
generosity  in  which  Hamilton  never  failed.  This 
incident  casts  a  still  deeper  shade  of  infamy  upon 
Burr's  blackened  character,  but  it  does  not  af- 
fect his  standing  under  the  code.  The  code  of 
honor,  so  called,  was  bad  and  false,  barbarous 
even,  but  those  who  lived  by  it  were  responsible 
to  it  and  for  it.  When  Hamilton  attacked  Burr 
as  he  did,  he  ran  the  risk  of  a  challenge  which 
he  could  accept  or  decline  as  he  chose.  Such 
a  challenge  did  not,  according  to  the  code  of 
honor,  make  Burr  a  murderer,  nor  did  he  be- 
come one  by  practicing  at  a  mark  before  fight- 
ing. Every  Frenchman,  if  he  has  time,  goes  to 
the  Salle  d'Arines  before  fighting,  and  a  man 
has  as  much  right  to  prepare  for  a  duel  as  for  a 
boat-race  or  a  boxing  match.  The  pity  of  it  all 
is,  that  Hamilton  felt  obliged  to  yield  assent  to 
the  requirements  of  the  code. 

Each  man  prepared  for  the  meeting  in  his 
own  fashion  ;  Burr  by  pistol  practice  in  his  gar- 
den, Hamilton  by  settling  the  business  of  his 
clients.  As  the  fatal  day  drew  near,  Hamilton 
displayed  a  calm  cheerfulness,  such  as  became 
a  gallant  man  of  strong  character,  and  wrote 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  247 

farewell  letters  to  his  wife  full  of  the  most  in- 
tense feeling  and  touching  pathos.  Burr  took 
the  necessary  precautions  for  the  destruction  of 
compromising  letters  from  women  whom  he  had 
seduced.  They  met  at  last,  on  a  beautiful  July 
morning,  by  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  Hamil- 
ton fell  at  the  first  fire,  mortally  wounded,  dis- 
charging his  own  pistol  into  the  air.  He  was 
taken  to  his  home,  lingered  a  few  hours  in  ter- 
rible pain,  and  died,  surrounded  by  his  agonized 
family.  Burr  went  forth  unharmed,  to  engage 
in  abortive  treason,  and  to  become  a  wanderer 
and  an  outcast  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Hamilton's  suffering  and  death  caused  an 
outburst  of  bitter  and  indignant  grief  among 
men  of  all  parties  throughout  the  nation,  which 
has  been  equaled  only  in  our  own  time  by  the 
popular  emotion  at  the  murders  of  Lincoln  and 
Garfield.  The  people  knew  that  a  great  man 
had  fallen.  The  senseless  slaughter  of  a  famous 
statesman,  the  useless,  needless  sacrifice  of  a 
man  of  brilliant  abilities  in  the  prime  of  life, 
was  felt  to  be  almost  as  much  a  disgrace  as  a 
misfortune,  and  Hamilton's  death  did  more  to 
abate  dueling  and  make  it  odious  than  any 
event  in  our  history. 

The  question,  however,  which  presses  on  us 
as  we  consider  the  circumstances  of  Hamilton's 
death  is,  why  did  he  fight  ?  why  did  such  a  man 


248  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

as  he  bow  before  the  code  to  which  he  fell  a  vic- 
tim? It  was  something  far  deeper  than  mere 
loyalty  to  a  system  which  he,  like  other  men  of 
his  stamp,  had  accepted  as  they  found  it.  Ham- 
ilton could  have  set  his  foot  upon  the  code.  The 
personal  courage  of  the  man  who  stormed  the 
Yorktown  redoubt  was  beyond  question  or  cavil. 
He  could  have  said  :  "  I  renounce  the  code  ;  it  is 
senseless  and  barbarous.  I  have  attacked  you 
as  a  public'man,  and  I  choose  to  consider  it  a 
purely  public  matter.  I  decline  to  fight."  He 
could  have  said  this,  and  he  would  have  said  it 
had  he  not  felt  that  the  need  of  conforming  to 
certain  prejudices  made  the  sacrifice  imperative. 
Before  he  went  to  the  fatal  meeting  he  put  upon 
paper  a  statement  which  gave  with  his  own 
unrivaled  force  and  clearness  the  objections  to 
dueling,  and  the  seemingly  all-powerful  motives 
which  urged  him  to  refuse  to  risk  his  life  and 
the  welfare  of  his  children.  At  the  end  of  this 
remarkable  paper  he  gives  his  reason  for  meet- 
ing Burr  in  these  words :  "  The  ability  to  be 
in  future  useful,  whether  in  resisting  mischief 
or  effecting  good,  in  those  crises  of  our  pub- 
lic affairs  which  seem  likely  to  happen,  would 
probably  be  inseparable  from  a  conformity  with 
public  prejudice  in  this  particular."  Hamilton 
was  a  man,  not  only  of  courage  enough  to  fight 
a  duel,  but  he  possessed  that  far  higher  courage 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  249 

which  would  have  enabled  him  to  refuse  the  chal- 
lenge and  face  a  public  prejudice,  the  strength 
of  which  in  his  own  case  he  sadly  overestimated. 
What,  then,  were  the  possible  crises  which  he 
foresaw,  and  which  led  to  his  fatal  decision  ? 

The  opinions  which  caused  these  apprehen- 
sions are  of  the  utmost  importance  to  a  correct 
understanding  of  his  life  and  work.  They  fur- 
nish the  key  to  the  principles  which  guided  him 
through  a  large  part  of  his  career  as  a  public 
man,  and  they  produced  certain  settled  beliefs 
which  finally  drove  him  to  accept  Burr's  chal- 
lenge and  thus  hurried  him  to  his  death.  I  pro- 
pose, therefore,  to  trace  the  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  these  opinions  by  means  of  extracts 
from  his  letters.  In  these  passages  we  shall  see 
the  effect  upon  Hamilton  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, and  the  dangers  which  he  came  to  believe 
threatened  the  country.  We  shall  then  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  crisis  which  haunted  his 
imagination,  and  which  caused  him  to  sacrifice 
his  life.  In  these  same  passages  we  shall  also 
learn  incidentally,  from  his  own  lips,  how  in- 
tense was  his  love  of  nationality  and  how  deep 
his  hatred  of  secession ;  and  we  shall  see,  too, 
in  the  most  striking  way,  how  purely  national 
were  the  principles  which  inspired  his  foreign 
policy,  and  how  utterly  baseless  were  the  accu- 
sations of  undue  sympathy  with  Great  Britain. 


250  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

The  first  extract  is  from  a  letter  to  Lafay« 
ette  written  in  October,  1789,  when  everything 
looked  so  fair  and  smiling  at  the  dawn  of  the 
French  Revolution.  We  see  here  the  remark- 
able penetration  and  statesmanlike  prescience 
of  Hamilton,  as  well  as  his  knowledge  and  keen 
perception  of  forces,  social  and  political,  as  he 
points  out  the  dangers  which  he  dreaded  and 
which  hardly  any  one  then  foresaw,  but  which 
all  came  to  pass.  In  his  fears  we  detect,  too, 
the  first  germs  of  his  subsequent  opinions.  He 
says  to  his  old  comrade-in-arms  :  — 

"  I  have  seen  with  a  mixture  of  pleasure  and  ap- 
prehension the  progress  of  the  events  which  have 
lately  taken  place  in  your  country.  As  a  friend  to 
mankind  and  to  liberty  I  rejoice  in  the  efforts  you  are 
making  to  establish  it,  while  I  fear  much  for  the  final 
success  of  the  attempts,  for  the  fate  of  those  I  esteem 
who  are  engaged  in  it,  and  for  the  danger,  in  case  of 
success,  of  innovations  greater  than  will  consist  with 
the  real  felicity  of  your  nation.  If  your  affairs  still 
go  well,  when  this  reaches  you,  you  will  ask  why  this 
foreboding  of  ill,  when  all  the  appearances  have  been 
so  much  in  your  favor.  I  will  tell  you :  I  dread  dis- 
agreements among  those  who  are  now  united  (which 
will  be  likely  to  be  improved  by  the  adverse  party), 
about  the  nature  of  your  constitution.  I  dread  the 
vehement  character  of  your  people,  whom  I  fear  you 
may  find  it  more  easy  to  bring  on,  than  to  keep 
within  proper  bounds  after  you  have  put  them  in 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  251 

motion.  I  dread  the  interested  refractoriness  of  your 
nobles  who  cannot  all  be  gratified,  and  who  may  be 
unwilling  to  submit  to  the  requisite  sacrifices.  And 
I  dread  the  reveries  of  your  philosophic  politicians, 
who  appear  in  the  movement  to  have  great  influence, 
and  who,  being  mere  speculatists,  may  aim  at  more 
refinement  than  suits  either  with  human  nature  or 
the  composition  of  your  nation." 

The  next  extract  is  from  a  letter  written 
rather  more  than  three  years  later,  when  these 
early  anticipations  had  become  terrible  realities, 
and  when  the  storms  of  the  revolution  had  be- 
gun to  disturb  our  own  politics.  Speculation 
as  to  results  in  France  was  at  an  end.  All  the 
possibilities  that  Hamilton  had  dreaded  then 
were  accomplished  facts,  and  he  was  now  anx- 
ious to  know  how  much  the  same  perils  were 
to  be  feared  in  this  country.  He  wrote  to  his 
friend  Colonel  Carrington,  in  April,  1793,  to 
learn  the  state  of  public  opinion  in  Virginia; 
and  from  Carrington's  reply  we  discover  what 
his  inquiries  were,  and  thus  catch  the  drift  of 
his  thought  at  that  time.  He  wished  to  know 
what  the  feeling  was  in  Virginia  as  to  the  revo- 
lutionary cause  in  France ;  as  to  the  execution 
of  the  king,  the  adoption  of  a  neutrality  policy 
by  the  United  States,  the  maintenance  or  aban- 
donment of  the  French  treaties,  and  as  to  the 
reception  of  Genet.  He  soon  felt  assured,  ap« 


252  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

parently,  that  the  same  dangerous  forces  existed 
in  this  country  as  in  France,  and  only  doubted  as 
to  their  extent  and  power  among  the  people.  In 
a  letter  of  the  same  year  (1793),  after  describ- 
ing with  marked  disgust  Genet's  reception  on 
arriving  in  Philadelphia,  he  speaks  of  the  pro- 
moters of  the  affair  as  the  opponents  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  disturbers  of  order,  and  then  says : 
"  We  too  have  our  disorganizers.  But  I  trust 
there  is  enough  of  virtue  and  good  sense  in  the  peo- 
ple of  America  to  baffle  every  attempt  against  their 
prosperity,  though  masked  under  the  specious  garb  of 
an  extraordinary  zeal  for  liberty.  They  practically, 
I  doubt  not,  adopt  this  sacred  maxim,  that  without 
government  there  is  no  true  liberty." 

Having  already  expressed  his  belief  in  the 
probability  of  "  combinations "  to  control  our 
politics  in  foreign  interests,  he  then  goes  on 
after  the  passage  just  quoted  to  deprecate  vio- 
lent demonstrations  of  attachment  to  France, 
and  to  repudiate  all  comparisons  between  her 
revolution  and  ours.  "  I  own  I  do  not  like  the 
comparison,"  he  says,  and  then  follow  his  rea- 
sons, which  are  worth  giving  in  full  because 
they  state  in  a  moderate  and  yet  forcible  man- 
ner the  grounds  for  his  opinions  as  to  the  domi- 
nant movement  of  the  age,  and  express  very 
admirably  the  causes  and  the  reasoning  on  which 
his  principles  and  those  of  the  Federalists  gen- 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  253 

erally  were  founded.  It  is  an  excellent  exposi- 
tion of  the  feelings  which  actuated  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  French  Revolution  and  its  theories :  — • 

"  When  I  contemplate  the  horrid  and  systematic 
massacres  of  the  2d  and  3d  of  September ;  when  I 
observe  that  a  Marat  and  a  Robespierre,  the  notorious 
promoters  of  these  bloody  scenes,  sit  triumphantly 
in  the  convention  and  take  a  conspicuous  part  in  its 
measures,  that  an  attempt  to  bring  the  assassins  to 
justice  has  been  obliged  to  be  abandoned ;  when  I  see 
an  unfortunate  prince,  whose  reign  was  a  continued 
demonstration  of  the  goodness  and  benevolence  of  his 
heart,  of  his  attachment  to  the  people  of  whom  he 
was  the  monarch,  who  though  educated  in  the  lap  of 
despotism,  had  given  repeated  proofs  that  he  was  not 
the  enemy  of  liberty,  brought  precipitately  and  igno- 
miniously  to  the  block  without  any  substantial  proof 
of  guilt  as  yet  disclosed,  —  without  even  an  authentic 
exhibition  of  motives,  in  decent  regard  to  the  opin- 
ions of  mankind ;  when  I  find  the  doctrines  of  athe- 
ism openly  advanced  in  the  convention  and  heard 
with  loud  applause ;  when  I  see  the  sword  of  fanati- 
cism extended  to  force  a  political  creed  upon  citizens 
who  were  invited  to  submit  to  the  arms  of  France  as 
the  harbingers  of  liberty ;  when  I  behold  the  hand  of 
rapacity  outstretched  to  prostrate  and  ravish  the  mon- 
uments of  religious  worship  erected  by  those  citizens 
and  their  ancestors ;  when  I  perceive  passion,  tumult, 
and  violence  usurping  those  seats  where  reason  and 
cool  deliberation  ought  to  prevail,  I  acknowledge  that 


254  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

I  am  glad  to  believe  there  is  no  real  resemblance  be* 
tween  what  was  the  cause  of  America  and  what  ia 
the  cause  of  France;  that  the  difference  is  no  less 
great  than  that  between  liberty  and  licentiousness.  I 
regret  whatever  has  a  tendency  to  compound  them, 
and  I  feel  anxious,  as  an  American,  that  the  ebulli- 
tions of  inconsiderate  men  among  us  may  not  tend  to 
involve  our  reputation  in  the  issue*" 

Two  years  later  he  felt  that  there  was  danger 
of  actual  outbreaks  at  a  time  when  our  relations 
with  France  had  become  very  strained  and  threat- 
ening. The  dangerous  elements,  he  seems  to 
have  thought,  were  really  on  the  verge  of  open 
violence  in  New  York.  He  writes  to  Wolcott 
in  July,  1795  :  — 

"We  have  some  cause  to  suspect,  though  not 
enough  to  believe,  that  our  Jacobins  meditate  serious 
mischief  to  certain  individuals.  It  happens  that  the 
militia  of  this  city,  from  the  complexion  of  its  officers, 
cannot  in  general  be  depended  on,  and  it  will  be  diffi- 
cult for  some  time  to  organize  a  competent  armed 
eubstitute.  In  this  situation  our  eyes  turn  as  a  re- 
source in  a  sudden  emergency,  upon  the  military 
now  in  the  forts,  but  these,  we  are  told,  are  under 
marching  orders.  Pray  converse  confidentially  with 
the  secretary  at  war  and  engage  him  to  suspend  the 
march.  Matters  in  eight  or  ten  days  will  explain 
themselves." 

The  next  extract  gives  a  glimpse  of  Hamil- 
ton's theory  of  foreign  policy,  and  of  the  purely 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  255 

national  spirit  which  inspired  it.  The  last 
clause  shows  how  deeply  he  felt  the  evil  of  the 
colonial  mode  of  thought,  which  was  then  so 
strong  that  men  did  not  even  realize  that  they 
were  still  beneath  its  influence.  Hamilton  al- 
ready anticipated  the  essential  need  of  that 
intellectual  freedom  and  individuality  toward 
Europe  which  it  took  years  of  conflict  to  bring 
to  pass.  The  letter  is  dated  December  16, 1796, 
and  is  addressed  to  Ruf us  King :  — 

"The  favorable  change  in  the  conduct  of  Great 
Britain  towards  us,  strengthens  the  hands  of  the 
friends  of  order  and  peace.  It  is  much  to  be  desired 
that  a  treatment  in  all  respects  unexceptionable  from 
that  quarter  should  obviate  all  pretext  to  inflame  the 
public  mind. 

"  We  are  laboring  hard  to  establish  in  this  coun- 
try principles  more  and  more  national,  and  free  from 
all  foreign  ingredients,  so  that  we  may  be  neither 
'  Greeks  nor  Trojans,'  but  truly  Americans." 

A  few  months  later  (April  10, 1797)  he  shows 
strongly  in  a  letter  to  William  Smith  how  averse 
he  was  to  violence,  either  in  favor  of  or  against 
any  foreign  people  whatsoever,  whether  they 
were  the  English,  whom  he  respected,  or  the 
French,  whom  he  detested,  because  he  knew  that 
such  violence  was  inconsistent,  not  only  with  dig- 
nity, but  with  a  true  national  pride  :  — 


256  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

"  It  is  unpleasant  to  me  to  know  that  I  have  for 
some  time  differed  materially  from  many  of  my 
friends  on  public  subjects,  and  I  particularly  regret, 
that  at  the  present  critical  juncture  there  is  in  my 
apprehension  much  danger  that  sensibility  will  be  an 
overmatch  for  policy.  We  seem  now  to  feel  and  rea- 
son as  the  Jacobins  did  when  Great  Britain  insulted 
and  injured  us,  though  certainly  we  have  at  least  as 
much  need  of  a  temperate  conduct  now  as  we  had 
then.  I  only  say  God  grant  that  the  public  interest 
may  not  be  sacrificed  at  the  shrine  of  irritation  and 
mistaken  pride." 

The  same  feeling  finds  expression  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  a  letter  to  Oliver  Wolcott, 
dated  June  6,  1797 :  — 

"  I  like  very  well  the  course  of  executive  conduct 
in  regard  to  the  controversy  with  France,  and  I  like 
the  answer  of  the  Senate  in  regard  to  the  President's 
speech. 

"  But  I  confess,  I  have  not  been  well  satisfied  with 
the  answer  reported  in  the  House.  It  contains  too 
many  hard  expressions ;  and  hard  words  are  very 
rarely  used  in  public  proceedings.  Mr.  Jay  and  other 
friends  here  have  been  struck  in  the  same  manner 
with  myself.  We  shall  not  regret  to  see  the  answer 
softened  down.  Real  firmness  is  good  for  every- 
thing. Strut  is  good  for  nothing." 

In  a  similar  strain  he  writes  to  Pickering  a 
few  months  later  (March  27,  1798),  defining 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  257 

the  proper  relations  to  be  maintained  with  Eng- 
land, in  case  the  war  against  France  should  be 
actively  prosecuted :  — 

"  I  am  against  going  immediately  into  alliance  with 
Great  Britain.  It  is  my  opinion  that  her  interests 
will  insure  us  her  cooperation  to  the  extent  of  her 
power,  and  that  a  treaty  will  not  secure  her  further. 
On  the  other  hand  a  treaty  might  entangle  us.  Pub- 
lic opinion  is  not  prepared  for  it." 

England,  he  says,  should  give  sufficient  powers 
to  her  minister  here  to  meet  all  exigencies,  and 
to  enter  into  alliance  if  opportunity  and  public 
opinion  permitted  it.  Then  he  refers  to  the 
necessity  of  acquiring  Louisiana,  which  at  that 
moment  held  a  leading  place  in  his  thoughts. 

In  the  next  letter,  which  I  shall  quote,  we 
see,  for  the  first  time,  a  plain  allusion  to  the 
"  crisis  "  which  might  in  the  event  of  its  occur- 
rence have  a  decisive  effect  upon  his  actions 
and  upon  his  career.  The  letter  is  addressed 
to  Jay,  who  wished  to  appoint  Hamilton  to  the 
vacancy  in  the  United  States  Senate  caused  by 
the  resignation  of  Judge  Hobart,  and  is  dated 
April  24,  1798. 

"  I  have  received  your  two  favors  of  the  19th  in- 
stant. I  feel,  as  I  ought,  the  mark  of  confidence  they 
announce.  But  I  am  obliged  by  my  situation  to  de- 
cline the  appointment.  This  situation  you  are  too 
well  acquainted  with  to  render  it  necessary  for  me  to 


258  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

enter  into  explanation.  There  may  arrive  a  crisis 
when  I  may  conceive  myself  bound  once  more  to  sac- 
rifice the  interests  of  my  family  to  public  call.  But 
I  must  defer  the  change  as  long  as  possible." 

How  deeply  rooted  his  convictions  had  now 
become  as  to  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended 
from  the  influence  of  France  and  of  French 
ideas,  and  how  real  and  menacing  he  felt  these 
perils  to  be  in  the  United  States,  are  well  illus- 
trated in  a  letter  to  Washington,  dated  May  19, 
1798.  I  have  already  referred  to  this  letter  in 
a  previous  chapter,  but  the  passage  in  question 
deserves  a  full  quotation  in  this  connection. 

"  It  is  more  and  more  evident  that  the  powerful 
faction  which  has  for  years  opposed  the  government, 
is  determined  to  go  every  length  with  France.  I  am 
sincere  in  declaring  my  full  conviction,  as  the  result 
of  a  long  course  of  observation,  that  they  are  ready 
to  new  model  our  constitution  under  the  influence 
or  coercion  of  France ;  to  form  with  her  a  perpetual 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  and  to  give  her  a 
monopoly  of  our  trade  by  peculiar  and  exclusive  priv- 
ileges. This  would  be  in  substance,  whatever  it 
might  be  in  name,  to  make  this  country  a  province 
of  France.  Neither  do  I  doubt  that  her  standard, 
displayed  in  this  country,  would  be  directly  or  indi- 
rectly seconded  by  them,  in  pursuance  of  the  project 
I  have  mentioned." 

His  fears  of  social  confusion  were  not  only, 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  269 

as  we  see  here,  fully  aroused,  but  his  pride  in 
American  nationality  was  deeply  touched.  In 
another  passage,  in  the  same  letter,  his  dread 
and  dislike  of  anything  sectional  in  our  poli- 
tics, or  of  anything  suggesting  geographical  divi- 
sion, and  consequent  secession,  come  out  very 
strikingly. 

"It  is  painful  and  alarming  to  remark  that  the 
opposition  faction  assumes  so  much  a  geographical 
complexion.  As  yet,  from  the  south  of  Maryland, 
nothing  has  been  heard,  but  accounts  of  disapproba- 
tion of  our  government,  and  approbation  of  or  apology 
for  France.  This  is  a  most  portentous  symptom  and 
demands  every  human  effort  to  change  it." 

The  mischiefs  which  he  anticipated  seemed 
to  him  in  this  exciting  year  to  be  so  close  at 
hand  that  we  find  him  preparing  in  his  own 
mind  practical  measures  for  meeting  and  over- 
coming them.  His  first  thought,  of  course,  was 
for  the  army,  upon  which  he  relied  for  the  main- 
tenance of  order  and  government.  It  was  with 
this  purpose  that  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Otis, 
December  27,  1798 :  — 

"  Any  reduction  of  the  actual  force  appears  to  me 
inexpedient.  It  will  argue  to  our  enemies  that  we 
are  either  very  narrow  in  our  resources,  or  that  our 
jealousy  of  his  designs  has  abated.  Besides,  that 
with  a  view  to  the  possibility  of  internal  disorders 
alone,  the  force  authorized  is  not  too  considerable. 


260  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

The  efficacy  of  militia  for  suppressing  such  disorders 
is  not  too  much  to  be  relied  on." 

The  army  was  his  chief  reliance,  but  he  also 
had  an  extended  plan  for  the  proper  course  to 
be  pursued  by  the  Federalists  now  that  they 
were  in  possession  of  all  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment. This  policy  is  fully  set  forth  in  the 
well-known  letter  to  Dayton,  written  in  1799. 
I  have  already  referred  to  it  and  given  an 
outline  of  its  contents.  It  advised  a  vigorous 
strengthening  of  the  central  government  in  all 
directions,  including  a  division  of  the  large 
States,  and  the  enactment  of  sharp  alien  and 
sedition  laws.  It  is,  as  I  have  said,  the  best 
exposition  of  Hamilton's  views  at  that  trying 
period,  is  strongly  characteristic  of  its  author, 
and  was  so  far  as  possible  carried  out  by  the 
Federalists. 

A  little  later  in  the  same  year,  and  in  a  simi- 
lar spirit,  he  wrote  to  ask  the  attorney-general, 
Hoffman,  to  prosecute  a  newspaper  which  had 
charged  him  with  suppressing  the  "  '  Aurora '  by 
pecuniary  means." 

"  Hitherto,"  he  says,  "  I  have  forborne  to  resort  to 
the  laws  for  the  punishment  of  the  authors  or  abettors 
(of  such  attacks),  and  were  I  to  consult  personal  con- 
siderations alone,  I  should  continue  in  this  course, 
repaying  hatred  with  contempt.  But  public  motives 
now  compel  me  to  a  different  conduct.  The  designs 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  261 

of  that  faction  to  overturn  our  government,  and  with 
it  the  great  pillars  of  social  security  and  happiness  in 
this  country,  become  every  day  more  manifest,  and 
have  of  late  acquired  a  system  which  renders  them 
formidable." 

He  then  adds  that  one  engine  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  society  is  the  issue  of  libels  calculated 
to  destroy  the  character  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous supporters  of  the  government,  as  in  this  in- 
stance, by  charging  them  with  attempts  to  stifle 
the  liberty  of  the  press  ;  and  he  says  that  these 
intrigues  and  calumnies  are  carried  on  by  Ameri- 
can citizens  aided  by  foreign  gold. 

The  immediate  danger  which  Hamilton 
dreaded  at  the  time  of  the  troubles  with  France 
dropped  out  of  sight  during  the  heated  struggles 
which  preceded  the  election  of  1800.  Peace 
came,  too,  bringing  quiet  in  its  train  every- 
where, and,  while  it  served  to  make  the  conta- 
gion of  French  principles  appear  less  virulent, 
it  also  pushed  the  "crisis,"  which  Hamilton 
always  anticipated,  still  farther  into  the  back- 
ground. After  the  excitement  of  the  political 
battle  had  subsided,  and  when  nothing  was  left 
but  to  watch  the  course  of  the  Democratic  party 
in  full  possession  of  the  government,  Hamilton 
seems  to  have  given  way  to  a  depression  in  re- 
gard to  public  affairs  very  unusual  to  his  strong 
nature.  It  seemed  to  him  that  all  his  labors 


262  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

had  been  wasted  and  misunderstood,  and  that 
his  achievements,  and  those  of  the  great  party 
which  he  had  led,  would  crumble  away  beneath 
the  gradual  assaults  of  the  now  triumphant  op- 
position. In  this  mood  he  wrote  bitterly  to 
Gouverneur  Morris,  giving  vent  to  the  disap- 
pointment which  filled  his  soul  when  he  thought 
of  the  success  of  his  enemies,  the  seeming  in- 
gratitude of  the  people,  and,  as  he  believed, 
the  waste  and  misapprehension  of  all  the  efforts 
which  he  had  made  for  the  welfare  and  glory 
of  his  country.  The  letter  in  question  is  dated 
February  27,  1802  :  — 

"  Mine  is  an  odd  destiny,"  he  says.  "  Perhaps  no 
man  in  the  United  States  has  sacrificed  or  done  more 
for  the  present  Constitution  than  myself ;  and,  con- 
trary to  all  my  anticipations  of  its  fate,  as  you  know, 
from  the  very  beginning.  I  am  still  laboring  to  prop 
the  frail  and  worthless  fabric.  Yet  I  have  the  mur- 
murs of  its  friends  no  less  than  the  curses  of  its  foes 
for  my  reward.  What  can  I  do  better  than  withdraw 
from  the  scene  ?  Every  day  proves  to  me  more  and 
more  that  this  American  world  was  not  made  for  me. 

"  The  time  may  ere  long  arrive  when  the  minds  of 
men  will  be  prepared  to  make  an  effort  to  recover  the 
Constitution,  but  the  many  cannot  now  be  brought  to 
make  a  stand  for  its  preservation.  We  must  wait  a 
while. 

"  You,  friend  Morris,  are  by  birth  a  native  of  this 
country,  but  by  genius  an  exotic.  You  mistake  if 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  263 

you  fancy  that  you  are  more  of  a  favorite  than  my- 
self, or  that  you  are  in  any  sort  upon  a  theatre  suited 
to  you." 

This  frame  of  mind,  in  which  a  man  in  bitter- 
ness of  spirit  gives  up  a  world  which  he  believes 
to  be  hopelessly  blind  and  wrong,  was  thor- 
oughly alien  to  Hamilton.  It  could  not  have 
lasted  long  at  any  time.  No  matter  how  desper- 
ate the  prospect,  Hamilton's  instinct  was  ever  to 
push  the  battle,  and  to  fight  on  despite  all  dis- 
couragements. Soon  after  this  letter  to  Morris, 
therefore,  we  find  him  laying  out  a  policy  to 
be  pursued  by  the  Federalists  in  order  to  check 
their  adversaries  and  recover  their  lost  ground. 
The  letter  is  written  to  Bayard  in  April,  1802, 
and  is  one  of  the  most  curious  and  interesting 
in  all  Hamilton's  correspondence.  It  shows 
how  deeply  imbued  he  had  become  with  his 
dread  of  social  disorders ;  and  the  extraordinary 
scheme  which  he  presents  for  an  association  to 
combat  the  poisonous  French  doctrines  indicates 
the  development  of  a  state  of  mind  which  was 
certainly  highly  strained,  and  almost  morbid  in 
its  extreme  views  of  public  affairs.  He  gives 
first  some  suggestions  as  to  the  policy  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  Federalists,  which  show  very  strik- 
ingly how  deeply  rooted  his  opinions  had  be- 
come as  to  the  dangerous  state  of  society  and 
the  perils  which  threatened  the  country.  He 


264  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

begins  by  pointing  out  that  men  cannot  be  gov« 
erned  by  reason,  his  estimate  of  human  nature 
having  become  much  lower  in  the  contemplation 
of  Democratic  ascendency.  He  then  says  that, 
while  the  Federalists  have  neglected  to  appeal 
to  the  passions  and  especially  to  the  vanity  of 
men,  their  opponents  have  thriven  by  assidu- 
ously pandering  to  these  qualities  of  mankind. 
The  time  has  come  for  the  Federalists  to  repair 
this  error,  not  by  any  unworthy  or  revolutionary 
devices,  but  by  irregular  methods  which  would 
be  needless  under  a  sound  and  stable  govern- 
ment. He  then  continues  :  — 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  present  Constitution  is  the 
standard  to  which  we  are  to  cling.  Under  its  ban- 
ners bona  fide  must  we  combat  our  political  foes,  re- 
jecting all  changes  but  through  the  channel  itself 
provides  for  amendments.  By  these  general  views 
of  the  subject  have  my  reflections  been  guided.  I 
now  offer  you  the  outline  of  the  plan  they  have  sug- 
gested. Let  an  association  be  formed,  to  be  denomi- 
nated 'The  Christian  Constitutional  Society.'  Its 
objects  to  be :  1st.  The  support  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. 2d.  The  support  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States." 

He  then  sketches  its  organization  and  de- 
scribes its  purposes  as  follows :  — 

"  1st.  The  diffusion  of  information. 
"2d.  The  use  of  all  lawful  means  in  concert  to 
promote  the  election  of  fit  men. 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  265 

"  3d.  The  promoting  of  institutions  of  a  charitable 
and  useful  nature  in  the  management  of  Federalists. 
The  populous  cities  ought  particularly  to  be  attended 
to;  perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  institute  in  such 
places  —  1st.  Societies  for  the  relief  of  emigrants. 
2d.  Academies,  each  with  one  professor,  for  instruct- 
ing the  different  classes  of  mechanics  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  mechanics  and  the  elements  of  chemistry. 
The  cities  have  been  employed  by  the  Jacobins  to 
give  an  impulse  to  the  country ;  and  it  is  believed  to 
be  an  alarming  fact,  that  while  the  question  of  the 
Presidential  election  was  pending  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  parties  were  organizing  in  several  of 
the  cities  in  the  event  of  there  being  no  election,  to 
cut  off  the  leading  Federalists  and  seize  the  govern- 
ment." 

In  addition  to  this  society  he  urges  a  strong 
and  immediate  effort  for  the  repeal  of  the  law 
repealing  the  Judiciary  Act,  and  he  counsels  in 
other  respects  the  adoption  of  a  waiting  policy 
until  popular  opinion  should  be  educated  and 
turned  in  the  right  direction. 

The  last  letter  from  which  I  shall  quote,  and 
Hamilton's  last  letter  on  public  concerns,  relates 
to  the  Separatist  movement  in  New  England. 
There  is  a  deep  and  pathetic  interest  in  these 
words,  written  when  the  shadow  of  death  was 
actually  lying  dark  upon  his  path.  They  show 
once  more  that,  in  all  his  dread  of  democracy 
and  French  principles,  the  national  sentiment 


266  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

still  rose  supreme,  and  that  with  his  latest 
breath  he  resisted  any  plan  which  threatened 
the  unity  of  the  country.  The  letter  is  ad- 
dressed to  Sedgwick,  and  is  dated  July  10, 

1804:  — 

"  I  will  here  express  but  one  sentiment,  which  is, 
that  dismemberment  of  our  empire  will  be  a  clear 
sacrifice  of  great  positive  advantages  without  any 
counterbalancing  good,  administering  no  relief  to  our 
real  disease,  which  is  democracy,  the  poison  of  which 
by  a  subdivision  will  only  be  the  more  concentrated 
in  each  part,  and  consequently  the  more  virulent." 

By  these  extracts,  if  they  have  served  their 
purpose  here,  we  can  perceive  the  drift  of  Ham- 
ilton's thought.  We  can  see  the  effect  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  of  the  working  of  politi- 
cal forces  in  this  country  upon  his  opinions,  and 
we  are  now  in  a  position  to  understand  and  de- 
fine the  exact  nature  of  that  "  crisis  "  which  had 
haunted  Hamilton  for  years,  which  had  grown 
to  be  his  deepest  conviction  and  his  first  thought, 
and  to  which  he  gave  up  his  life. 

Hamilton  believed  the  Constitution  to  be  un- 
equal to  the  burden  imposed  upon  it,  and  he 
considered  the  government  too  weak.  At  any 
moment,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  there  might  be 
a  general  upheaval,  and  that  then  the  elements 
which  had  desolated  France  and  swept  over 
Europe  might  here  engage  in  a  conflict  for  su- 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  267 

premacy.  Then  would  the  country  be  menaced 
with  anarchy  and  ruin ;  property  would  be  con- 
fiscated, society  broken  up,  religion  trampled 
under  foot,  and  everything  that  makes  life  worth 
having  would  be  in  jeopardy.  Then  the  salva- 
tion of  the  country  and  the  preservation  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  would  demand  a  party  of 
order,  an  army,  and  a  leader  ready  to  play  the 
part  of  a  savior  of  society,  and  establish  the 
government  on  strong  and  enduring  founda- 
tions. That  great  part,  Hamilton  felt,  would 
fall  to  him,  and  if  the  contingency  had  been 
possible,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  the 
man  to  whom  the  party  of  order  would  have 
turned.  He  could  not  do  this,  he  could  not 
stand  at  the  head  of  an  army,  if  it  were  possible 
for  any  man  to  cast  even  the  most  groundless 
imputation  upon  his  personal  courage.  He  was 
utterly  at  fault  in  supposing  that  there  were  in 
the  United  States  the  same  elements  and  the 
same  forces  as  in  France.  Both  race  and  his- 
tory made  their  existence  impossible.  The  re- 
presentative democracy  developing  in  America 
was  more  hostile  to  the  anarchy  of  the  French 
Revolution  than  the  strongest  and  most  energetic 
government  which  the  wit  of  man  could  devise. 
Hamilton's  mistake  was  neither  unnatural  nor 
uncommon;  but,  joined  with  his  just  belief  of 
the  duty  which  would  devolve  upon  him  in  such 


268  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

a  crisis  as  he  anticipated,  it  made  it  imperative 
for  him  to  accept  the  challenge  of  Burr.  It  is 
neither  fanciful  nor  strained  to  regard  Hamil- 
ton's death  as  a  result  of  the  opinions  bred  by 
the  French  Revolution.  That  terrible  convul- 
sion had  many  illustrious  victims  of  all  nations 
and  all  creeds,  but  hardly  one  more  brilliant  or 
more  uselessly  sacrificed  than  the  great  states- 
man who  fell  before  Burr's  pistol  that  peaceful 
July  morning. 

Thus  far  I  have  dealt  with  Hamilton  solely 
as  a  public  man.  It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  ap- 
proach him  in  any  other  way,  when  his  life  and 
talents  were  given  so  constantly  and  so  com- 
pletely to  the  service  of  the  public.  He  died  a 
private  man,  mourned  by  a  nation ;  he  had  lived, 
except  in  his  very  last  years,  immersed  in  the 
affairs  of  the  commonwealth  and  in  the  full 
glare  of  publicity.  Every  act  of  his  was  scruti- 
nized and  examined,  every  slip  chronicled,  every 
mistake  magnified,  while  he  stood  for  years  in 
the  highest  places,  assuming  every  responsibility 
and  conspicuous  before  the  eyes  of  all  men. 
This  unsparing  publicity,  which  pursued  Ham- 
ilton in  his  life,  has  attended  him  in  his  death. 
No  American,  except  Washington,  has  had 
everything  which  he  ever  wrote,  said,  or  did, 
published  with  such  elaboration  as  has  fallen  to 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  269 

the  lot  of  Hamilton.  No  other  American  has 
been,  historically  speaking,  so  much  discussed, 
so  much  criticised,  and  so  much  written  about. 
All  this  enhances  the  difficulty  of  any  fresh 
study  of  Hamilton's  life ;  but  at  the  same  time, 
even  the  briefest  biography  would  be  incomplete 
without  an  attempt,  at  least,  to  portray  him  as  a 
man,  to  analyze  the  traits  of  his  mind  and  char- 
acter, and  to  define  the  quality  of  his  greatness. 
In  person  Hamilton  was  well  made,  of  light 
and  active  build,  but  very  small,  much  below 
the  average  height.  His  friends  were  wont  to 
call  him  the  "  little  lion ; "  and  it  is  somewhat 
remarkable  that  his  stature  seems  to  have  inter- 
fered so  slightly,  if  at  all,  with  his  success  as  an 
orator.  A  commanding  and  imposing  presence 
is  a  great  aid  in  affecting  an  audience,  and  yet 
Hamilton  was  one  of  the  most  impressive  speak- 
ers of  his  time.  He  was,  too,  the  most  eloquent 
man  and  the  most  effective  advocate  of  his  day, 
whether  in  court  or  in  convention,  if  we  can 
judge  by  results,  by  the  fragments  that  remain 
of  his  speeches,  and  by  the  testimony  of  eye-wit- 
nesses. There  was  certainly  no  one  who  was  in 
active  public  life  during  the  same  period,  unless 
it  be  John  Adams,  or  Fisher  Ames  on  one 
memorable  occasion,  who  could  for  a  moment 
be  compared  with  him  as  an  orator.  It  is  very 
plain,  too,  that  Hamilton's  success  in  this  direc- 


270  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

tion  was  by  no  means  wholly  due  to  what  he 
said,  or  to  his  power  of  reasoning  and  of  lucid 
and  forcible  statement.  The  man  was  impres- 
sive. Inches  of  stature  and  of  girth  were  lack- 
ing, but  he  was  none  the  less  full  of  dignity.  In 
this,  of  course,  his  looks  helped  him.  His  head 
was  finely  shaped,  symmetrical,  and  massive. 
His  eyes  were  dark,  deep-set,  and  full  of  light 
and  fire.  He  had  a  long,  rather  sharp  nose,  a 
well-shaped,  close-set  mouth,  and  a  strong,  firm 
jaw.  The  characteristics  of  the  spare,  clean-cut 
features  are  penetration  and  force.  There  is  a 
piercing  look  about  the  face  even  in  repose ;  and 
when  Hamilton  was  moved  a  fire  came  into  his 
eyes  which  we  are  told  had  a  marvelous  effect. 
But  it  was  the  soul  which  shone  through  his 
eyes,  and  animated  his  mobile  countenance,  that 
made  him  so  effective  in  speech.  As  men  lis- 
tened to  him,  they  felt  profoundly  the  mastery  of 
the  strong  nature,  the  imperious  will,  and  the 
passionate  energy  which  gave  such  force  to  his 
pathos,  to  his  invective,  and  to  the  even  flow  of 
clear,  telling  argument.  The  impression  which 
Hamilton  was  capable  of  producing  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  famous  scene  of  the  murder  trial, 
when  he  laid  bare  the  guilt  of  Croucher.  Yet 
the  excitement  of  a  court-room  was  not  neces- 
sary to  such  a  feat.  In  the  quiet  of  an  office, 
solely  by  his  own  resistless  determination  he 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  271 

wrested  a  conveyance,  which  was  unjust  and  had 
been  unfairly  obtained,  from  the  oppressor  of 
his  client. 

In  private  life  Hamilton  was  much  beloved 
and  most  attractive.  He  talked  well  and  freely. 
He  was  open-hearted  and  hospitable,  full  of 
high  spirits  and  geniality.  In  his  own  family 
he  was  idolized  by  wife  and  children.  The  af- 
fection which  he  inspired  in  all  who  knew  him 
was  largely  due  to  the  perfect  generosity  of  his 
nature,  for  he  gave  time  and  money  with  a  lav- 
ish hand  to  all  who  sought  his  aid.  He  carried 
this  habit  into  his  business  to  his  own  detri- 
ment. He  would  often  refuse  to  make  any 
charge  to  poor  clients,  and  never  could  be  per- 
suaded to  accept  anything  beyond  a  reasonable 
and  modest  fee.  He  had  in  truth  a  contempt 
for  money,  and,  while  he  made  a  nation's  for- 
tune, he  never  made  his  own.  At  his  death  he 
left  his  family  little  except  his  name  and  fame. 

Like  most  men  of  great  talents  and  strong 
will,  Hamilton  had  a  large  measure  of  self-con- 
fidence. Just  after  he  left  the  treasury,  he 
feared  that  Congress  would  fail  to  treat  the 
finances  in  a  proper  way.  He  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  great  wrath  that  he  would  not  stand  tamely 
by  and  see  the  nation  disgraced  ;  if  Congress 
did  not  do  their  duty  they  would  have  to  reckon 
with  him.  On  another  occasion  he  was  dis- 


272  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

pleased  by  what  he  considered  a  useless  demand 
for  information  on  the  part  of  the  Senate.  He 
thereupon  addressed  a  communication1  to  that 
august  body  in  which  he  lectured  them  as  to 
their  conduct,  and  took  them  to  task  roundly 
for  their  misbehavior.  This  letter  is  quite  a 
curiosity,  and  the  meekness  with  which  the 
Senate  apparently  accepted  the  rebuke  is  not 
the  least  amusing  part  of  the  affair.  All  this 
was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  man.  The 
greater  the  odds  the  more  defiantly  and  the 
more  confidently  he  faced  opposition.  On  one 
or  two  occasions  this  self-confidence  took  the 
more  disagreeable  form  of  self-assertion,  but 
such  outbreaks  were  rare. 

Hamilton's  defects  sprang  not  from  weakness 
but  from  the  strength  of  his  passions,  which 
sometimes  overmastered  his  reason.  Thus  it  was 
in  his  relations  with  women,  which  had  an  un- 
enviable notoriety.  It  was  passion  again  which 
led  him  into  the  unworthy  proposition  to  Gov- 
ernor Jay  and  into  his  wild  attack  upon  Adams. 
His  faults  were  those  of  a  powerful  and  pas- 
sionate nature  when  it  had  broken  down  all  the 
barriers  of  self-control.  His  errors  are  all  the 
more  to  be  regretted  because  he  was  a  man  of 

1  The  letter  is  given  in  full  in  Adams's  Life  of  Gallatin,  p. 
116,  and  is  also  to  be  found  in  American  State  Papers  ; 
p.  77. 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  273 

such  wide  influence  and  striking  abilities,  and 
for  this  reason  they  were,  of  course,  all  the 
more  dangerous. 

There  is  no  better  evidence  of  Hamilton's 
greatness  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  letters  and 
sayings  of  his  bitterest  enemies.  Burr  pro- 
nounced the  man  to  be  lost  who  put  himself  on 
paper  with  him.  Jefferson  called  him  the  "  Co- 
lossus of  the  Federalists,"  and  always  referred 
to  the  acts  and  opinions  of  his  opponents  as 
those  of  Hamilton,  speaking  of  that  party  by 
the  name  of  its  leader.  Ambrose  Spencer,  the 
distinguished  judge,  who  had  had  many  conflicts 
with  Hamilton,  and,  on  at  least  one  occasion, 
had  felt  the  edge  of  his  sarcasm,  paid  him  one 
of  the  handsomest  tributes  ever  rendered  to  his 
abilities,  at  the  same  time  characterizing  the 
quality  of  his  greatness  and  his  influence  with 
peculiar  felicity :  — 

"  Alexander  Hamilton,"  said  Spencer,  "  was  the 
greatest  man  this  country  ever  produced.  I  knew 
him  well.  I  was  in  situations  often  to  observe  and 
study  him.  I  saw  him  at  the  bar  and  at  home.  He 
argued  cases  before  me  while  I  sat  as  judge  on  the 
bench.  Webster  has  done  the  same.  In  power  of 
reasoning  Hamilton  was  the  equal  of  Webster ;  and 
more  than  this  can  be  said  of  no  man.  In  creative 
power  Hamilton  was  infinitely  Webster's  superior. 
...  It  was  he,  more  than  any  other  man,  who 


274  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

thought  out  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and 
the  details  of  the  government  of  the  Union ;  and,  out 
of  the  chaos  that  existed  after  the  Revolution,  raised 
a  fabric  every  part  of  which  is  instinct  with  his 
thought.  I  can  truly  say  that  hundreds  of  politi- 
cians and  statesmen  of  the  day  get  both  the  web  and 
woof  of  their  thoughts  from  Hamilton's  brains.  He, 
more  than  any  man,  did  the  thinking  of  the  time." 

Chancellor  Kent,  who  was  one  of  Hamilton's 
warmest  admirers,  says  of  him  that  — 

"  He  rose  at  once  to  the  loftiest  heights  of  profes- 
sional eminence,  by  his  profound  penetration,  his 
power  of  analysis,  the  comprehensive  grasp  and 
strength  of  his  understanding,  and  the  firmness, 
frankness,  and  integrity  of  his  character.  We  may 
say  of  him,  in  reference  to  his  associates,  as  was  said 
of  Papinian :  '  Omnes  longo  post  se  intervallo  re- 
liquerit.'  " 

There  is  not  much  to  choose  between  the 
praise  of  the  quondam  foe  and  of  the  constant 
friend.  Both  the  Federalist  and  the  Democrat, 
eminent  lawyers  and  judges  both,  were  agreed 
as  to  Hamilton's  ability. 

Among  the  Federalists  Hamilton  had  a  band 
of  devoted  friends  who  comprised  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the 
nation.  They  were  an  able,  strong,  hard-headed, 
and  rather  dogmatic  body,  most  of  them  lead- 
ers themselves,  and  holding  high  places  in  the 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  275 

republic.  Yet  they  supported  Hamilton  with 
a  fidelity  which  has  been  rarely  equaled.  The 
roll  of  his  followers  is  enough  by  itself  to  estab- 
lish his  position  in  American  history.  Indiffer- 
ence was  impossible  toward  Hamilton.  He  was 
too  strong  and  too  open  to  inspire  lukewarm 
sentiments,  and  he  was  loved  and  hated  with 
equal  intensity.  At  the  same  time  Hamilton, 
as  I  have  already  said,  was  preeminently  a 
leader  of  leaders.  He  could  do  "  the  thinking 
of  his  time ; "  he  could  issue  orders,  or  plan  a 
policy,  or  act  in  conjunction  with  men  who  fol- 
lowed or  sustained  him  in  obedience  to  the  dic- 
tates of  reason.  But  he  was  never  an  adept  in 
the  difficult  and  delicate  art  of  managing  men 
wherein  his  great  rival  Jefferson  stood  supreme. 
He  was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  a  dema- 
gogue, and  he  was  not  even  a  popular  leader, 
for  he  had  too  great  a  distrust  of  democracy 
to  appeal  successfully  to  the  sympathy  of  the 
masses.  In  this  he  was  a  fit  and  typical  leader 
of  the  party  to  which  he  belonged.  He  could 
not  float  with  the  currents  of  public  sentiment 
and  had  no  faith  in  them.  He  was  a  leader, 
and  could  not  follow.  He  could  mark  out  a 
path  and  walk  in  it,  and,  if  the  people  hesitated 
or  held  back,  he  would  walk  alone.  This  did 
not  arise  from  narrowness,  for  Hamilton  had 
always  great  liberality  of  mind,  but  simply  from 


276  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  strength  of  his  convictions  and  from  reliance 
on  his  own  abilities,  which  made  it  impossible 
for  him  to  seek  for  success  by  yielding  a  jot  of 
what  he  believed,  after  mature  deliberation,  to 
be  right  and  true.  This  implies,  of  course, 
great  force  of  character ;  but  Hamilton  had  also 
a  boldness  of  disposition  which  stamped  itself 
on  his  financial  and  foreign  policy,  and  at  times 
amounted  to  an  almost  reckless  audacity.  The 
miserable  Reynolds  affair  has  cast  a  shadow  upon 
the  honor  of  James  Monroe,  and  its  wretched 
details  have  found  a  place  in  one  of  the  biogra- 
phies of  Jefferson.  No  one  can  desire  to  rake 
over  the  ashes  of  this  miserable  scandal,  but  in 
its  effect  it  showed  the  courage  of  Hamilton  in 
a  most  striking  manner.  Drawn  by  his  un- 
curbed passion  into  a  low  intrigue  with  a  worth- 
less woman,  he  found  himself  threatened  with  a 
black  imputation  upon  his  official  integrity.  At 
the  cost  of  bitter  grief  to  himself  and  to  all 
whom  he  most  loved,  he  published  a  pamphlet 
in  which  he  told  the  whole  unpleasant  story. 
The  manliness  of  the  act,  the  self-inflicted  pun- 
ishment, and  the  high  sense  of  public  honor 
thus  exhibited,  silenced  even  his  opponents ;  but 
the  confession  was  one  which  must  have  wrung 
Hamilton  to  the  quick,  and  it  shows  an  amount 
of  nerve  and  determination  for  which  our  his- 
tory can  furnish  no  parallel. 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  277 

Hamilton's  career  as  a  public  man  had  closed 
before  his  death.  Had  he  lived  longer  he  would 
have  added  to  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and 
writer ;  but  it  is  very  doubtful  if  he  would  have 
again  entered  public  life.  His  work  was  done. 
It  was  a  great  work,  and  had  been  well  per- 
formed. He  cared  but  little  for  office.  He  was 
ambitious,  but  his  objects  were  fame  and  power, 
to  be  obtained  by  advancing  the  welfare  and 
dignity  of  his  country.  So  long  as  he  could 
lead  his  party  and  help  to  shape  the  national 
policy,  he  was  perfectly  content  to  remain  in  a 
lawyer's  chambers  in  New  York.  A  great  office 
had  to  him  no  value  in  itself,  but  only  in  what 
he  was  able  to  achieve  by  holding  it ;  and  every 
one  will  admit  that  few  men  have  accomplished 
so  much.  He  founded  the  financial  system  of 
the  United  States,  and  converted  the  barren 
clauses  of  the  Constitution  into  a  living  organ- 
ism. He  established  the  doctrine  of  a  liberal 
construction  and  of  the  implied  powers ;  and  he 
shares  with  Washington  the  honor  of  devising 
and  carrying  out  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United 
States.  This  is  enough.  There  is  no  need  to 
rehearse  the  almost  endless  list  of  lesser  matters 
which  bear  the  mark  of  his  fertile  and  powerful 
intellect.  He  was  always  at  work,  and  we  look 
in  vain  for  sterile  places  in  his  life. 

There  are  two  classes  of  statesmen,  —  those 


278  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

who  are  great  in  their  calling,  and  those  who,  in 
addition,  represent  great  ideas.  Instances  of  the 
former  kind  abound.  Examples  of  the  latter 
are  rare.  Hamilton  is  one  of  the  statesmen  of 
creative  minds  who  represent  great  ideas.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  he  left  the  deep  mark  of  his 
personal  influence  upon  our  history.  His  prin- 
ciples of  finance,  of  foreign  affairs,  of  political 
economy,  and  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  gov- 
ernment under  the  Constitution,  may  be  found 
on  every  page  of  our  history,  and  are  full  of 
vitality  to-day.  But  Hamilton  is  identified  with 
two  other  ideas  which  go  far  deeper,  and  which 
have  been  the  moving  forces  in  our  national 
development.  He  did  not  believe  in  democracy 
as  a  system  of  government.  He  strove  with  all 
his  energy  to  make  the  experiment  of  the  Con- 
stitution succeed,  but  he  doubted  its  merit  at  the 
outset,  and  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
its  existing  form  it  was  doomed  to  failure.  He 
believed  in  class  influence  and  representation,  in 
strong  government,  and  in  what,  for  want  of  a 
better  phrase,  may  be  called  an  aristocratic  re- 
public. Curiously  enough,  this  theory  was  put 
in  practice  only  in  the  South,  where  Hamilton 
had  scarcely  any  followers. 

The  other  great  idea  of  which  he  was  the 
embodiment  was  that  of  nationality.  No  other 
inan  of  that  period,  except  Washington,  was 


DUEL  AND   DEATH  279 

fully  imbued  with  the  national  spirit.  To  Ham- 
ilton it  was  the,  very  breath  of  his  public  life, 
the  essence  of  his  policy.  To  this  grand  prin- 
ciple many  men,  especially  in  later  times,  have 
rendered  splendid  services  and  made  noble  sac- 
rifices ;  but  there  is  no  single  man  to  whom  it 
owes  more  than  to  Hamilton.  In  a  time  when 
American  nationality  meant  nothing,  he  grasped 
the  great  conception  in  all  its  fullness,  and  gave 
all  he  had  of  will  and  intellect  to  make  its  real- 
ization possible.  He  and  Washington  alone  per- 
ceived the  destiny  which  was  in  store  for  the 
republic.  For  this  he  declared  that  the  United 
States  must  aim  at  an  ascendant  in  the  affairs 
of  America.  For  this  he  planned  the  conquest 
of  Louisiana  and  the  Floridas,  and,  despite  the 
frowns  of  his  friends,  rose  above  all  party  feel- 
ings and  sustained  Jefferson  in  his  unhesitating 
seizure  of  the  opportunity  to  acquire  that  vast 
territory  by  purchase.  To  these  ends  everything 
he  did  was  directed,  and  in  his  task  of  founding 
a  government  he  also  founded  a  nation.  It  was 
a  great  work.  Others  contributed  much  to  it, 
but  Hamilton  alone  fully  understood  it.  On  the 
other  side  was  Jefferson,  also  a  man  who  repre- 
sented ideas,  that  of  democracy  and  that  of  a 
confederacy,  with  a  weak  general  government 
and  powerful  states  threatening  secession.  The 
ideas  which  these  two  men  embodied  have  in 


280  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

their  conflict  made  up  the  history  of  the  United 
States.  The  democratic  principles  of  Jefferson 
and  the  national  principles  of  Hamilton  have 
prevailed,  and  have  sway  to-day  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  But,  if  we  go 
a  step  farther,  we  find  that  the  great  Federalist 
has  the  advantage.  The  democratic  system  of 
Jefferson  is  administered  in  the  form  and  on  the 
principles  of  Hamilton;  and  while  the  former 
went  with  the  current  and  fell  in  with  the  dom- 
inant forces  of  the  time,  Hamilton  established 
his  now  accepted  principles,  and  carried  his  pro- 
jects to  completion  in  the  face  of  a  relentless 
opposition,  and  against  the  mistaken  wishes  of  a 
large  part  of  the  people. 

To  attempt  to  measure  the  exact  proportions 
of  a  great  man  is  neither  very  easy  nor  perhaps 
very  profitable.  This  biography  has  been  writ- 
ten to  little  purpose  if  it  has  failed  to  show  the 
influence  of  Hamilton  upon  our  history,  and  this 
of  itself  is  a  title  of  the  highest  distinction.  It 
is  given  to  but  few  men  to  impress  themselves 
indelibly  upon  the  history  of  a  great  nation. 
But  Hamilton,  as  a  man,  achieved  even  more 
than  this.  His  versatility  was  extraordinary. 
He  was  a  great  orator  and  lawyer,  and  he  was 
also  the  ablest  political  and  constitutional  writer 
of  his  day,  a  good  soldier,  and  possessed  of  a 
wonderful  capacity  for  organization  and  prac- 


DUEL  AND  DEATH  28* 

tical  administration.  He  was  a  master  in  every 
field  that  he  entered,  and  however  he  may  have 
erred  in  moments  of  passion,  he  never  failed. 
Weakness  and  incompetency  were  not  to  be 
found  in  Hamilton.  Comparisons  are  valueless, 
because  points  of  difference  between  men  are 
endless.  John  Marshall  ranked  Hamilton  next 
to  Washington,  and  with  the  judgment  of  their 
great  chief  justice  Americans  are  wont  to  be 
content.  But  wherever  he  is  placed,  so  long  as 
the  people  of  the  United  States  form  one  nation, 
the  name  of  Alexander  Hamilton  will  be  held  in 
high  and  lasting  honor,  and  even  in  the  wreck 
of  governments  that  noble  intellect  would  still 
command  the  homage  of  men. 


APPENDIX 


NOTE   A. 

MR.  BANCROFT  in  the  eighth  volume  of  his  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  (page  79),  in  describing  the 
great  meeting  at  New  York  in  July,  1774,  says :  "  It 
has  been  kept  in  memory,  that  on  this  occasion  a 
young  man  from  abroad,  so  small  and  delicate  in  his 
organization  that  he  appeared  to  be  much  younger 
than  perhaps  he  really  was,  took  part  in  the  debate 
before  the  crowd.  .  .  .  He  proved  to  be  Alexander 
Hamilton,  a  West  Indian.  His  mother,  while  he  was 
yet  a  child,  had  left  him  an  orphan  and  poor.  A 
father's  care  he  seems  never  to  have  known.  The 
first  written  trace  of  his  existence  is  in  1766,  when 
his  name  appears  as  witness  to  a  legal  paper  executed 
in  the  Danish  island  of  Santa-Cruz."  I  have  fol- 
lowed in  my  first  chapter  the  ordinarily  accepted 
account  of  Hamilton's  birth  and  parentage,  and,  after 
the  most  careful  consideration  and  investigation  which 
I  have  been  able  to  give,  I  am  clearly  of  the  opinion 
that  there  is  no  evidence  sufficient  to  justify  any  bio- 
grapher in  setting  it  aside.  At  the  same  time  grave 
doubts  have  been  cast  upon  this  account,  and  as  they 


284  APPENDIX 

proceeded  from  so  eminent  an  authority  as  Mr.  Ban- 
croft, I  felt  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  pass 
them  over  in  silence,  especially  when  entirely  new 
material  relating  to  this  subject  had  come  to  my 
knowledge.  The  question  of  Hamilton's  parentage 
possesses  the  interest  which  always  attaches  to  the 
origin  of  very  distinguished  men,  and  the  date  of  his 
birth  affects  our  estimate  of  his  youthful  powers.  On 
any  theory  Hamilton  displayed  great  talents  at  a  very 
early  age,  but  if  the  accepted  date  of  his  birth  is  cor- 
rect, his  precocity  was  certainly  extraordinary.  Mr. 
Bancroft  is  evidently  of  the  opinion  that  Hamilton 
was  older  than  he  was  said  to  have  been  when  he 
spoke  at  the  meeting  in  the  fields,  for  he  could  hardly 
have  "  appeared "  less  than  seventeen,  which  is  the 
age  given  him  by  his  biographer.  Mr.  Bancroft's 
doubts  arose  partly,  perhaps,  from  the  intrinsic  im- 
probability of  such  unusual  intellectual  maturity,  but 
chiefly  from  the  deed  signed  by  Hamilton  as  a  wit- 
ness in  1766.  If  Hamilton  was  born  in  1757,  he 
was  only  nine  years  old  when  he  signed  this  instru- 
ment. It  is  certainly  not  a  little  remarkable  that  a 
child  of  that  tender  age  should  have  been  accepted 
as  a  competent  witness  to  an  important  document,  but 
it  is  not  in  the  least  impossible,  and  any  conclusion 
based  on  this  phenomenon  must  of  course  be  mere 
conjecture.  If  at  thirteen  he  was  able  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  a  considerable  merchant,  he  might  very 
well  have  been  a  fit  witness  at  nine.  The  character 
of  his  signature  is  of  more  importance  than  the  fact 
of  his  affixing  it  to  a  deed.  I  have  carefully  ex- 


APPENDIX  285 

amined  an  exact  tracing  of  this  signature.  The  hand- 
writing is  obviously  Hamilton's.  The  signature  is 
written  in  a  fair,  open  hand,  and  might  well  be  the 
work  of  a  man.  Only  a  close  examination,  which 
reveals  a  certain  roundness  in  the  letters,  and  some 
deliberation  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  suggests  youth- 
ful penmanship.  The  signature  is  certainly  a  very 
mature  one  to  have  been  written  by  a  boy  nine  years 
old.  But  then  it  is  not  at  all  an  impossible  feat,  and 
is  by  no  means  so  extraordinary  as  the  letter  to  Ned 
Stevens  a  few  years  later,  or,  indeed,  as  many  of 
Hamilton's  youthful  performances. 

This  document,  signed  in  1766,  is  the  only  evi- 
dence directly  bearing  on  Hamilton's  age;  but  the 
fact  that  the  date  of  his  birth  has  been  questioned, 
leads  necessarily  to  an  inquiry  as  to  the  circum- 
stances of  his  origin  and  parentage,  which  have  ren- 
dered such  doubts  possible.  In  a  letter  to  a  kinsman 
in  Scotland,  in  1797,  he  himself  says :  "  You  no 
doubt  have  understood  that  my  father's  affairs  at  a 
very  early  day  went  to  wreck ;  so  as  to  have  rendered 
his  situation  during  the  greatest  part  of  his  life  ineli- 
gible. This  state  of  things  occasioned  a  separation 
between  him  and  me,  when  I  was  very  young,  and 
threw  me  upon  the  bounty  of  my  mother's  relatives, 
some  of  whom  were  then  wealthy,  though,  by  vicissi- 
tudes to  which  human  affairs  are  so  liable,  they  have 
been  since  much  reduced  and  broken  up.  I  myself, 
at  about  sixteen,  came  to  this  country."  This  meagre 
statement  is  all  Hamilton  himself  tells  us  of  his  origin. 
He  separated  completely  from  his  past  when  he  joined 


286  APPENDIX 

the  army  of  the  Revolution.  We  have  no  letters  from 
relatives  or  friends  in  the  West  Indies  except  from 
Dr.  Knox,  the  Nevis  clergyman.  There  is  also  a 
letter,  dated  in  1785,  from  Hamilton  to  a  brother 
James,  who  had  written  to  him  for  money.  In  this 
letter  Hamilton  says  that  he  has  not  heard  from  his 
brother  and  correspondent  for  years,  and  does  not 
know  whether  he  is  married  or  single.  He  then  asks 
anxiously  about  his  father,  saying  that  he  not  only  is 
totally  ignorant  of  that  gentleman's  circumstances, 
but  that  he  does  not  know  whether  his  father  is  alive 
or  dead.1  After  Hamilton  became  famous  his  father 
appeared,  or  rather  wrote  to  him,  and  he  sent  his 
father  money  and  urged  the  old  gentleman  to  come 
to  this  country. 

This  lack  of  information  concerning  the  family  and 
early  life  of  such  an  eminent  man  is  of  itself  enough 
to  cause  inquiry,  and  every  one  versed  in  American 
history  is  aware  of  the  fact  that  a  certain  amount  of 
mystery  has  hung  over  Hamilton's  birth  and  parent- 
age. Every  student  of  the  period  is  also  familiar 
with  the  story,  which  oral  tradition  has  handed  down, 
that  Hamilton  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  rich  West 
Indian  planter  or  merchant,  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  Mr.  Stevens,  the  father  of  Hamilton's  early 
friend  and  school-fellow. 

This  tradition  has  always  been  vague  and  unsup- 
ported. In  the  course  of  an  examination  of  the 
Pickering  papers  for  another  object,  I  found  among 
the  memoranda  collected  by  Colonel  Pickering,  with 
1  History  of  the  Eepublic,  by  J.  C.  Hamilton,  vol.  vii.  p.  842. 


APPENDIX  287 

the  purpose  of  writing  memoirs  of  his  contemporaries, 
two  somewhat  similar  accounts  of  Hamilton's  birth 
and  parentage.  It  must  be  remembered  that,  although 
Colonel  Pickering  did  not  always  agree  with  Hamil- 
ton, he  was  one  of  his  most  devoted  admirers.  He 
considered  Hamilton  by  far  the  greatest  man  of  his 
time  and  country,  ranking  him  without  hesitation 
above  Washington.  The  memoranda  in  question  are 
as  follows  :  — 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.     Philadelphia,  February  15, 
1822. 

This  morning  I  met  with  my  friend  Mr.  James  Yard 
of  this  city,  with  whom  I  have  had  an  acquaintance  of  be- 
tween twenty  and  thirty  years.  He  and  Dr.  Stevens  of 
the  West  Indies  married,  if  I  mistake  not,  two  sisters, 
the  daughters  of  the  Danish  Governor  of  Santa  Cruz,  of 
the  name  of  Walterstorff  (or  a  name  sounding  like  it). 
Mr.  Yard  first  introduced  Dr.  Stevens  to  me,  when  it  was 
contemplated  to  appoint  him  American  Consul  General 
for  St.  Domingo,  at  the  time  that  the  distinguished  negro 
General  Toussaint  L'Ouverture  bore  the  chief  sway  in 
the  Island.  The  conversation  led  us  to  speak  of  General 
Alexander  Hamilton.  I  remarked  to  Mr.  Yard,  that  at 
the  first  sight  of  Dr.  Stevens  his  likeness  to  Hamilton 
was  so  strong,  I  concluded  they  were  brothers,  for  it  was 
generally  understood  that  Hamilton  was  an  illegitimate 
son  of  a  gentleman  of  that  name.  Mr.  Yard  now  told  me 
that  General  Hamilton  was  born  in  the  island  of  Nevis 
(near  St.  Christopher's),  the  natural  son  of  a  Scotch  gen- 
tleman of  the  name  of  Hamilton  ;  that  he  was  an  ap- 
prentice to  Nicholas  Cruger,  who  afterwards  removed  (or 
returned)  to  New  York  ;  that  there  Hamilton  and  Stevens 


288  APPENDIX 

went  to  school  together  ;  and  since  the  death  of  Hamil 
ton,  an  aunt,  the  sister  of  his  mother,  came  to  New  York, 
and  was  for  some  weeks  in  Mrs.  Hamilton's  house,  from 
whom  (Mr.  Yard  naturally  concluded)  Mrs.  Hamilton 
must  have  received  full  information  of  her  husband's 
parentage  ;  that  this  aunt  being  poor,  and  removed  to 
Burlington,  in  New  Jersey,  received  the  aids  of  benevo- 
lence, partly  from  Mr.  Yard  ;  who  also  facilitated  her 
return  to  the  West  Indies.  Mr.  Yard  added,  that  Gen- 
eral Hamilton's  mother  died  but  two  or  three  years  ago. 

Mr.  Yard  told  me,  that  after  he  knew  that  the  papers, 
collected  in  relation  to  writing  the  life  of  Hamilton,  had 
been  put  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Joseph  Hopkinson,  he 
advised  Hopkinson  frankly  to  state,  that  Hamilton  was 
the  natural  son  of  a  Scotch  gentleman  in  the  West  Indies, 
as  an  avowal  of  a  fact  for  which  Hamilton,  not  being 
responsible,  ought  not  to  suffer  in  his  reputation.  [Mr. 
Yard  (a  gentleman  of  distinguished  sagacity  and  infor- 
mation) might  also  think  an  open  avowal  of  the  fact 
more  dignified  in  relation  to  a  person  of  Hamilton's  ex- 
alted talents  and  integrity,  than  any  other  course  ;  and 
that  to  glide  over  his  birth,  the  birth  of  a  man  so  eminent, 
without  adverting  to  his  father,  would  amount  to  a  con- 
fession that  he  was  (in  I  believe  English  law-language) 
"  filius  nullius,"  or  in  plain  English,  "  Nobody  knew  who 
was  his  father,"  the  meaning  of  both  expressions  being 
that  he  was  some  one's  natural  son]. 

As  to  the  strong  likeness  between  General  Hamilton 
and  Dr.  Stevens,  Mr.  Yard  could  give  no  account ;  altho* 
it  seemed  apparent  that  he  thought  them  near  of  kin. 
In  cases  of  this  sort,  the  possibility  of  kindred  blood  gives 
rise  to  surmises,  or  strong  suspicions,  of  which  no  proof 
is  attainable.  —  From  the  Pickering  MSS.  vol.  li.  p.  250. 


APPENDIX 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.    June  29,  1822. 

Altho'  little  if  anything  was  publicly  spoken,  yet  it 
seemed  always  to  have  been  understood,  among  those 
who  were  acquainted  with  this  extraordinary  man,  that 
he  was  the  illegitimate  offspring  of  a  Mr.  Hamilton,  in 
the  West  Indies.  Meeting  this  morning  with  Mr.  James 
Yard,  —  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia  whom  I  have  long 
known,  a  gentleman  distinguished  for  his  good  sense  and 
information,  and  who  had  lived  for  some  time  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  was  particularly  conversant  with  the 
Danish  Islands  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  Croix,  —  I  renewed 
the  subject  of  General  Hamilton's  parentage,  of  which 
we  had  before  conversed,  and  Mr.  Yard  repeated  :  That 
Hamilton  was  born  in  the  Island  of  Nevis,  the  reputed 
son  of  a  Scotch  merchant  of  the  name  of  Hamilton. 
That  he  was  some  time  in  the  store  of  Mr.  Cruger  (I  be- 
lieve in  St.  Croix),  and  was  sent  to  New  York  to  obtain 
an  education,  it  being  observed  that  he  possessed  a  mind 
of  a  superior  cast.  Mr.  Yard  supposed  that  Mr.  Cruger 
(who  was  from  New  York)  contributed  towards  the 
means  required  for  that  object.  Edward  Stevens  (after- 
wards Dr.  Stevens  with  whom  I  was  acquainted  in  this 
city)  was  sent  with  Hamilton  to  New  York,  for  the  same 
purpose  —  his  education. 

About  the  year  1798,  aftee  the  French  had  been  massa- 
cred or  expelled  from  Hispaniola,  and  the  negroes  under 
Toussaint  were  masters  of  the  French  part  of  the  island, 
it  was  thought  expedient  by  the  American  Government 
(Adams  then  the  President)  to  send  thither  an  agent, 
in  the  character  of  Consul  General,  and  from  my  in- 
quiries concerning  Dr.  Stevens,  then  in  Philadelphia,  he 
appeared  in  all  respects  singularly  qualified  for  the  office. 
He  had  long  resided  in  the  West  Indies,  understood  th« 


290  APPENDIX 

French  language,  was  very  intelligent,  and  a  worthy 
man.  With  his  brother-in-law,  James  Yard  (for  I  un- 
derstood they  had  married  sisters,  the  daughters  of  the 
Governor  Walterstorff  of  one  of  the  Danish  Islands),  I 
had  a  previous  acquaintance;  and  to  him  I  expressed  my 
opinion  of  Dr.  Stevens,  from  what  I  had  heard  of  his 
character,  from  Mr.  Yard,  or  some  other  source  of  in- 
formation. The  arrangements  being  thus  far  advanced,  I 
said  to  Mr.  Yard  :  "  But  I  have  not  yet  seen  Dr.  Stevens." 
Mr.  Yard  answered,  "I  will  bring  him  to  you."  They 
came  together  to  see  me.  At  the  first  glance,  I  was 
struck  with  the  extraordinary  similitude  of  his  and  Gen- 
eral Hamilton's  faces  ;  I  thought  they  must  be  brothers. 
To-day,  Mr.  Yard  informed  me  that  the  remark  had  been 
made  a  thousand  times  ;  that  when  young  children,  they 
lived  together  in  the  family  of  the  father  of  Stevens, 
and  were  sent  together  to  New  York  for  their  education. 
Conjecture  here  will  suppose  some  secrets,  which,  if 
known,  might  account  for  the  striking  likeness  of  these 
two  persons. 

Mr.  Hamilton,  the  reputed  father  of  the  General,  be- 
came a  planter  in  Granada.  Whether  he  patronized,  or 
in  any  way  provided  even  for  the  education  of  Alexander, 
Mr.  Yard  did  not  know.  An  aunt  of  Alexander's  came 
from  the  West  Indies  to  New  York,  some  years  ago,  and 
lived  a  good  while  in  the  family  of  Mrs.  Hamilton,  the 
General's  widow.  Thence  the  aunt  (I  think  Mr.  Yard 
called  her  name  Mitchell)  went  to  Burlington  ;  where, 
becoming  blind,  a  collection  was  made  among  some  of 
Hamilton's  friends,  to  enable  her  to  go  back  to  the  West 
Indies.  There  is  now  in  this  city  a  person  (I  think  Mr. 
Yard  called  him  a  merchant  and  pronounced  his  name, 
but  which  I  do  not  recollect),  Mr.  Yard  said,  the  son  of 
another  sister  of  General  Hamilton's  mother.  —  From  tkf 


APPENDIX  291 

Pickering  MSS.  vol.  li.  p.  302,  in  possession  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society. 

It  does  not,  of  course,  in  any  way  detract  from 
Hamilton's  fame  or  from  his  merits  if  any  of  these 
stories  should  be  true.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such 
a  fact  would  not  reflect  upon  him,  or  upon  those  who 
bear  his  name  and  have  the  honor  to  be  descended 
from  him.  His  rise  was  remarkable,  and  was  equally 
honorable  to  his  talents  and  character  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  he  came  a  stranger  from  an  obscure 
island,  one  of  the  pettiest  possessions  of  England, 
and  that  he  made  his  way  to  the  very  highest  rank 
in  everything  which  he  attempted,  unsupported  by 
wealth  and  unaided  by  family  connections.  If,  in 
addition  to  all  the  difficulties  which  he  overcame, 
that  of  illegitimacy  be  added,  it  is  simply  a  new  title 
to  the  respect  of  the  world  for  his  genius  and  force 
of  character.  One  of  the  penalties  of  his  greatness 
is  the  fact  that  thereby  the  question  of  his  birth  and 
parentage  assumes  considerable  historical  interest. 

It  can  be  said  that  Colonel  Pickering's  memoranda 
are  mere  gossip.  Such  they  are  on  their  face,  and 
nothing  would  be  more  distasteful  to  me  than  to  print 
them,  if  they  could  thus  be  put  aside.  They  could 
be  condemned  in  this  way  if  we  had  a  clear,  authen- 
tic, and  well-proved  account  of  Hamilton's  origin. 
As  this  is  not  the  case,  the  memoranda  of  Colonel 
Pickering,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  doubts  ex- 
pressed by  Mr.  Bancroft  and  the  tradition  familiar 
to  students  of  our  history,  acquire  an  importance  and 
interest  which  they  would  not  otherwise  possess,  and 


292  APPENDIX 

which  render  it  impossible  silently  to  pass  them  over 
in  any  attempt  to  write  Hamilton's  life.  To  explain 
clearly  what  has  just  been  said,  it  is  necessary  to  look 
closely  at  the  accepted  account,  and  show  briefly  why 
it  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  make  doubts  possible  and 
give  importance  to  Colonel  Pickering's  statements. 

We  are  not  told  by  Mr.  John  C.  Hamilton,  either 
in  the  first  and  unfinished  life  of  his  father  or  in  his 
second  elaborate  and  complete  life,  entitled  the  "  His- 
tory of  the  Republic,"  the  Christian  name  of  Hamil- 
ton's maternal  grandfather,  Mr.  Faucette,  or  of  Ham- 
ilton's mother,  or  of  his  mother's  first  husband.  We 
are  not  told  when  or  where  Mrs.  Hamilton  was  mar- 
ried to  her  first  husband,  Lavine,  from  whom  it  is  said 
she  was  divorced.  Divorce  was  extremely  rare  in 
the  colonies.  In  England  and  in  the  crown  provinces 
it  involved  long,  difficult,  and  expensive  proceedings 
of  the  greatest  publicity.  We  are  not  told  when, 
where,  how,  or  for  what  cause  the  divorce  was  ob- 
tained. In  the  first  life  it  is  said  that  "  there  were 
several  sons,  of  whom  Alexander  was  the  youngest.'* 
In  the  "  History  of  the  Republic "  it  is  stated  that 
Hamilton  was  the  only  surviving  child  ;  and  yet  in 
the  appendix  to  the  same  work  a  letter  is  given,  to 
which  I  have  already  referred,  written  by  Hamilton 
to  a  brother  named  James.  If  this  contradiction  is 
explained  by  a  second  marriage  of  Hamilton's  father, 
it  can  only  be  said  that  there  is  no  mention  of  such 
a  marriage.  In  the  first  life  it  is  said  that  Hamilton 
was  confided  to  the  care  of  his  mother's  relatives, 
Mr.  Peter  Lytton  and  his  sister,  afterwards  Mrs. 


APPENDIX  293 

Mitchell.  In  the  "History  of  the  Republic,"  Mr. 
Lytton  and  Mrs.  Mitchell  have  disappeared,  and 
Hamilton's  guardians  are  spoken  of  simply  as  his 
mother's  relatives.  From  the  Pickering  memoranda 
we  learn  that  Mrs.  Mitchell  came  to  this  country  and 
lived  with  Hamilton's  widow,  and  that  she  was  a 
Bister  of  Hamilton'  mother.  Mr.  Peter  Lytton  was 
therefore  the  brother  of  Hamilton's  mother,  and  her 
maiden  name  must  have  been  Lytton  and  not  Fau- 
cette,  unless  there  was  a  second  marriage  in  this  in- 
stance also,  and  the  relationship  between  her  and 
Lytton,  therefore,  only  that  of  the  half-blood.  Mr. 
John  C.  Hamilton  says  that  Hamilton's  mother  died 
while  Alexander  was  still  a  child.  Mr.  Yard,  on 
the  other  hand,  who  had  married  into  a  West  In- 
dian family,  who  was  a  close  connection  of  Edward 
Stevens,  Hamilton's  earliest  friend  and  school-fellow, 
and  who  was  therefore  in  a  position  to  know,  says 
that  Hamilton's  mother  was  living  in  1818.  The 
unquestioned  resemblance  between  Stevens  and  Ham- 
ilton would  be  of  no  great  importance,  and  might 
readily  be  dismissed  as  accidental,  were  it  not  for  the 
additional  fact  that  they  were  educated,  and  went 
to  college  together,  and  that,  according  to  Mr.  Yard, 
Hamilton  was  brought  up  in  the  Stevens  family. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  cause  of  the 
doubts  which  have  existed  as  to  Hamilton's  origin, 
and  also  the  reason  for  the  interest  and  importance 
which  attach  to  the  Pickering  memoranda  as  the 
only  evidence  we  have  on  the  point  from  Hamilton's 
contemporaries,  and  which  render  their  publication 


294  APPENDIX 

historically  desirable  and  even  necessary.  All  th$ 
evidence  has  now  been  presented  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  collect  it,  and  the  readers  of  this  note 
can  draw  conclusions  from  it  as  well  as  I  can.  The 
various  facts  from  the  different  sources  cannot  be  re- 
conciled with  each  other,  or  formed  into  a  clear  and 
coherent  narrative  as  they  stand,  but  this  is  probably 
owing  to  lack  of  fullness  of  statement. 

The  usually  accepted  version,  which  upon  all  the 
evidence  in  our  possession  I  believe  to  be  true,  rests 
on  the  meagre  statement  of  Hamilton  himself  which 
I  have  quoted,  and  on  the  careless  and  unsupported 
account  given  by  Mr.  John  C.  Hamilton.  It  may  be 
fairly  said  that  the  authority  of  Hamilton  and  of  his 
son  is  enough  on  such  a  matter,  and,  in  the  entire 
absence  of  convincing  proof  to  the  contrary,  I  have  so 
treated  it ;  and  fully  admitting  the  force  of  this  argu- 
ment, I  have  accepted  their  statement  in  this  biogra- 
phy as  final.  As  to  the  question  of  age,  Hamilton 
himself  could  hardly  have  been  much  mistaken.  He 
says  he  was  sixteen  when  he  came  to  this  country,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  that  on  any  theory  of  his  parentage 
this  statement  is  correct,  or  very  nearly  so.  He  may 
fairly  be  accepted  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
examples  of  mental  precocity  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge.  There  is  also  no  doubt  as  to  the  identity 
of  his  father,  James  Hamilton.  He  was  a  younger 
son  of  the  Laird  of  Grange,  one  of  the  Cambuskeith 
Hamiltons,  and  is  duly  recorded  in  Patterson's  "  His- 
tory of  Ayrshire  and  its  Families  "  (p.  203,  vol.  i.). 
Hamilton  himself  knew  about  his  father's  family  and 


APPENDIX  295 

the  two  elder  brothers  successively  Lairds  of  Grange, 
and  his  authority  as  to  his  parentage  can  be  over- 
thrown only  by  direct  proof  to  the  contrary. 

In  conclusion  let  me  say,  more  definitely  if  possible 
than  I  have  yet  done,  that  I  have  discussed  this  mat- 
ter fully,  and  have  printed  this  note,  and  the  some- 
what contradictory  Pickering  memoranda,  solely  be- 
cause I  did  not  feel  that  it  would  have  been  honest 
for  a  biographer  to  suppress  such  new  and  important 
statements,  however  vague  and  inconclusive,  in  re- 
gard to  the  birth  and  parentage  of  a  man  who  was  so 
highly  distinguished,  and  who  left  such  deep  marks 
of  his  personal  influence  upon  the  history  and  institu- 
tions of  the  United  States. 

NOTE  B. 

The  quarrel  between  Hamilton  and  Washington, 
which  led  to  the  former's  leaving  the  staff  of  the 
commander-in-chief,  has  always  been  given  an  im- 
portance which  perhaps  does  not  properly  belong  to 
it.  It  has  at  all  events  always  been  fully  discussed 
by  every  one  who  has  had  occasion  to  consider  it, 
and  I  therefore  shall  be  pardoned  for  adding  some 
facts  in  regard  to  it  which  came  to  my  knowledge 
after  this  volume  was  in  the  press.  It  is  well  known 
that  Hamilton  was  not  fully  satisfied  with  his  posi- 
tion on  Washington's  staff,  and  that  he  desired  to  be 
appointed  adjutant-general,  that  he  was  pressed  for 
this  post  by  Lafayette  ("  Memoirs  and  Correspond- 
ence of  Lafayette,"  vol.  i.  p.  366)  and  by  General 


296  APPENDIX 

Greene  (Hamilton's  "  History  of  the  Republic,"  vol.  L 
p.  141),  and  that  Lafayette  subsequently  wrote  to  him 
in  a  way  which  showed  that  his  resignation  from  the 
staff  had  been  contemplated  for  some  time.  ("  Me- 
moirs and  Correspondence  of  Lafayette,"  vol.  i.  p. 
302.) 

I  have  been  informed  by  a  gentleman l  who  was  a 
most  eminent  historical  authority,  and  a  friend  of  the 
late  Jared  Sparks,  that  Mr.  Sparks  told  him  of  a 
conversation  which  he  had  with  Lafayette  on  this 
subject  when  the  latter  visited  this  country  in  1825. 
Lafayette  told  Mr.  Sparks  that  Hamilton  had  pressed 
Washington  for  another  position ;  that  Washington 
had  refused  his  request,  as  in  the  case  of  the  adjutant- 
generalship  ;  and  that  they  had  had  two  or  three  dis- 
agreements growing  out  of  this  wish  of  Hamilton's 
before  the  final  breach  at  New  Windsor.  This  state- 
ment shows  that  there  were  causes  for  the  quarrel 
which  did  not  appear  on  the  surface,  and  that  the 
separation  was  neither  a  new  nor  a  sudden  idea  upon 
Hamilton's  part  at  least.  (See,  also,  Hamilton's  let- 
ter to  Schuyler,  February  18,  1781,  in  the  new  edition 
of  Hamilton's  Works,  where  it  is  now  for  the  first 
time  given  in  full.) 

NOTE   C. 

Hamilton's  argument  in  the  Croswell  case  was  re- 
ported and  printed  in  a  pamphlet  which  is  occasion- 
ally to  be  met  with,  and  has  been  reprinted  in  Moore's 
"  American  Eloquence." 

1  The  late  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ADAMS,  JOHN,  "  Discourses  on  Da- 
vila"  against  Jefferson,  140; 
election  endangered  by  Hamil- 
ton's advice,  193;  elected,  194; 
difficulty  of  his  relations  with 
Hamilton,  the  real  leader,  194- 
198;  suspects  Hamilton  of  in- 
trigue and  tries  to  crush  him,  196, 
197  ;  considered  unsafe  by  Ham- 
ilton, 196 ;  agrees  with  Hamilton 
in  wishing  a  French  commission, 
199 ;  selects  commissioners  in  op- 
position to  Hamilton's  advice,  200 ; 
his  error  in  so  doing,  200,  201 ; 
sends  X  Y  Z  correspondence  to 
Congress,  201 ;  answers  patriotic 
addresses,  202  ;  sends  nomination 
of  Washington  and  three  major 
generals  to  Congress,  203  ;  refuses 
to  give  Hamilton  highest  rank,203, 
204;  obliged  by  Washington  to 
submit,  204;  his  conduct  in  the 
affair,  205;  thinks  Hamilton 
wishes  military  conquest,  212  ;  on 
news  of  Talleyrand's  readiness  for 
reconciliation,  nominates  Mur- 
ray minister  to  France,  214 ;  pro- 
bably hopes  to  cripple  war  party, 
214  ;  error  of  his  action,  214,  216, 
217  ;  enlarges  commission,  217  ; 
refuses  to  delay  its  departure,  217  ; 
favors  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws, 
220  ;  attacked  by  Pickering,  226 ; 
drives  Pickering  and  McHenry 
from  cabinet,  226;  abuses  Ham- 
ilton, 226 ;  refuses  to  answer  his 
letters,  226,  227  ;  asks  from  Ham- 
ilton a  position  for  his  son-in-law, 
227;  folly  of  his  treatment  of 


Hamilton,  227,  228 ;  again  a  can- 
didate for  the  presidency,  228;  at- 
tacked in  a  pamphlet  by  Hamil- 
ton, 229,  230 ;  defeated  in  elec. 
tion,  232. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  writes  "  Pub- 
licola  "  against  Jefferson,  140. 

Adams,  Samuel,  converted  into  ad- 
vocate of  Constitution,  73. 

Alien  and  Sedition  Acts,  passed, 
219 ;  responsibility  for,  220. 

Ames,  Fisher,  superior  as  an  orator 
to  Hamilton,  78,  269. 

Andre*,  Major,  Hamilton's  acquaint- 
ance with  and  sympathy  for,  20. 

Annapolis  convention,  called  by  Vir- 
ginia, 53;  issues  address  calling 
for  general  convention,  54. 

Army,  of  Revolution,  neglected  by 
Congress,  39 ;  adopts  Newburgh 
addresses,  40 ;  ready  for  revolu- 
tion, 40,  41. 

Arnold,  Mrs.  Benedict,  Hamilton's 
interview  with,  after  her  hus- 
band's treachery,  20. 

Asia,  British  man-of-war,  fires  on 
New  York,  10. 

Assumption  of  state  debts,  struggle 
over,  118-127.  See  Congress  of 
the  United  States. 

BACHB,  B.  F.,  upholds  Genet,  168. 

Bancroft,  George,  doubts  as  to  date 
of  Hamilton's  birth,  283,  284. 

Bank,  suggested  by  Hamilton  under 
confederacy,  28,  29  ;  report  on,  to 
first  Congress,  98-102;  political 
reasons  for,  102,  103 ;  constitu- 
tionality of,  defended  by  Hamit 


300 


INDEX 


ton,  103 ;  debated  in  Congress, 
assailed  by  Jefferson  and  others, 
129. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  letter  of  Hamil- 
ton to,  suggesting  methods  of 
building  up  the  Federalist  party, 
263-265. 

Benson,  Egbert,  Hamilton's  col- 
league at  Annapolis  convention, 
54. 

Bimetallism,  advocated  by  Hamil- 
ton, 105,  106. 

Bland,  Theodoric,  in  Congress  of 
1782,  35. 

Bowdoin,  James,  crushes  Shays's 
rebellion,  52  ;  leads  Massachusetts 
to  urge  a  new  convention,  52. 

Burr,  Aaron,  his  alliance  with  the 
Livingstons,  81 ;  opinion  of  Ham- 
ilton as  a  writer,188, 273 ;  first  of  a 
line  of  New  York  politiicans,  220 ; 
bis  ability  as  a  manager,  223 ;  de- 
feats Hamilton,  223  ;  obtains  and 
prints  copy  of  Hamilton's  attack 
on  Adams,  229 ;  intrigues  with 
Federalists  to  get  presidency,  232  ; 
prevented  from  success  by  Hamil- 
ton, 233 ;  a  leader  of  New  York 
bar,  234  ;  defeated  in  intrigues  by 
Hamilton,  242,  243 ;  and  by  Jef- 
ferson, 243 ;  defeated  for  gov- 
ernor by  Lewis  through  Hamil- 
ton's influence,  243;  determines 
on  revenge,  and  forces  a  quarrel, 
243,  244 ;  his  character  and  real 
abilities,  244, 245  ;  not  a  murderer 
according  to  code  of  honor,  245 ; 
relieved  by  Hamilton  in  pecuni- 
ary difficulties,  246 ;  prepares  for 
duel,  246 ;  kills  Hamilton,  his  sub- 
sequent fate,  247. 

CAMJENDER,  JAMES  T.,  libel  of  Cros- 
well  against,  236. 

"  Camillas,"  essays  of,  188,  189. 

Carrington,  Edward,  asked  by  Ham- 
ilton in  regard  to  public  feeling  in 
Virginia,  251. 

14  Christian  Constitutional  Society," 
Hamilton's  plan  for,  264. 


Clinton,  George,  letter  of  Hamilton 
to,  explaining  his  course  in  Con- 
gress, 39  ;  urged  by  Hamilton  to 
provide  for  paying  British  debts, 
45 ;  dreads  a  strong  central  gov- 
ernment as  a  diminution  of  his 
power  in  New  York,  51 ;  leads 
New  York  to  reject  a  permanent 
revenue  for  Congress,  55  ;  fails  to 
prevent  call  of  state  convention, 
69  ;  secures  a  majority  of  dele- 
gates, 70  ;  although  defeated  in 
convention  retains  control  of  State, 
79  ;  prevents  reelection  of  Hamil- 
ton to  Congress,  79  ;  defeats  Yates 
for  governorship,  80;  loses  con- 
trol of  legislature  and  State,  80. 

Clymer,  George,  in  Continental  Con- 
gress of  1782,  35. 

Code  of  honor,  in  Burr-Hamilton 
case,  244,  245-249. 

Coinage,  report  on,  105  ;  debate  as 
to  its  device,  127. 

Confederacy,  condition  in  1780,  28, 
29 ;  in  1782,  44  ;  degradation  in 
1786-87,  49-52. 

Connecticut,  troops  from,  in  New 
York  Tory  riots,  10,  11. 

Congress,  Continental,  preparation 
for  in  New  York,  7,  9 ;  its  ineffi- 
ciency, 28  ;  decay  in  1782,  35  ;  its 
leaders,  35;  influenced  by  Luzerne 
to  place  peace  negotiations  in 
French  hands,  37  ;  defeated  in  at- 
tempt to  get  an  impost  from  States, 
38  ;  recommends  grant  from  the 
States,  39  ;  its  ingratitude  toward 
soldiers,  39,  41 ;  thanks  Washing- 
ton, 41 ;  refuses  to  open  debates 
to  public,  41 ;  standing  of  Hamil- 
ton in,  42  ;  refuses  a  permanent 
revenue  by  New  York  in  1787,  55  ; 
fixes  date  for  operation  of  Consti- 
tution, 79. 

Congress  of  the  United  States,  its 
slowness  in  assembling,  81  ;  refers 
financial  questions  to  Hamilton, 
84  ;  debates  payment  of  domestic 
debt,  115-118;  debates  assump- 
tion of  state  debt,  118-125;  <le- 


INDEX 


301 


feat«  assumption,  121 ;  reverses 
action  through  Jefferson's  influ- 
ence, 125,  127  ;  adopts  other  finan- 
cial measures,  127  ;  debates  ques- 
tion of  device  on  coins,  127 ;  de- 
bates and  establishes  bank,  129;  re- 
jects Hamilton's  new  tax  and  loan 
bills,  14G  ;  investigates  Hamilton's 
financial  integrity,  147,  148  ;  re- 
jects resolutions  of  censure,  148  ; 
debates  resolutions  for  discrimi- 
nating duties,  173,  174  ;  confirms 
Jay's  nomination  as  special  com- 
missioner to  England,  176  ;  passes 
excise  bill,  179 ;  gives  executive 
added  powers  to  crush  Whiskey 
Rebellion,  180  ;  supports  Washing- 
ton in  denouncing  Democratic 
societies,  183;  investigates  Ham- 
ilton's administration  a  second 
time,  184;  Senate  ratifies  Jay 
treaty,  186  ;  struggle  over  it  in 
House,  190;  passes  acts  for  de- 
fense against  France,  202;  car- 
ried by  Federalists,  202 ;  passes 
act  for  organizing  troops,  and  oth- 
ers, 206,  207  ;  passes  Alien  and 
Sedition  Acts,  219  ;  again  carried 
by  Federalists,  211 ;  elects  Jeffer- 
son President  over  Burr,  232,  233. 

Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
Hamilton's  plan  for,  60,  61 ;  strug- 
gle over  its  adoption,  64-79. 

Convention,  Federal,  suggested  by 
Hamilton  in  1780,  28;  by  New 
York  in  1782,  34 ;  by  Massachu- 
setts in  1787,  52 ;  by  Annapolis 
convention,  54;  election  of  dele- 
gates to,  in  New  York,  56 ;  Ham- 
ilton's action  in,  56-62. 

Cooper,  Dr.  Myles,  president  of 
King's  College,  saved  from  mob 
by  Hamilton,  10,  11. 

Croswell,  Henry,  prosecuted  for 
libel  against  Jefferson,  236;  his 
condemnation  and  defense  by 
Hamilton,  236,  237,  238,  296. 

Croucher, ,  his  evidence  broken 

down  by  Hamilton  in  a  murder 
case,  239,  240. 


Cruger,  Nicholas,  apprenticeship  of 
Hamilton  with,  287,  289. 

DAYTON,  JONATHAN,  letter  of  Ham- 
ilton to,  on  necessities  of  Consti- 
tution, 220,  221. 

Democratic  party,  formed  in  debates 
on  assumption  of  state  debt,  120  ; 
its  elements,  128;  dreads  mon- 
archy and  aristocracy,  128;  its 
lack  of  unity  in  1789,  135 ;  con- 
centrates upon  opposition  to  Ham- 
ilton's financial  policy,  136 ;  se- 
cretly organized  by  Jefferson  and 
Madison,  139 ;  given  an  organ  in 
"National  Gazette,"  141 ;  attacks 
Hamilton  for  corruption,  142 ;  first 
declaration  of  programme,  143; 
attacks  Hamilton  again  in  Con- 
gress, without  success,  146-148  ; 
upholds  Genet,  168,  169;  bases 
opposition  to  Federalists  on  for- 
eign policy,  172  ;  attacks  England 
in  Congress,  174;  but  refuses  to 
prepare  for  war  against  her,  175  ; 
opposes  Hamilton  for  English  mis- 
sion, 175,  177  ;  discredited  by  sup- 
pression of  Whiskey  Rebellion, 
182;  its  societies  die  out,  183; 
again  fails  to  damage  Hamilton 
by  investigation,  184 ;  its  anger 
at  Jay's  mission,  185  ;  denounces 
Jay  treaty,  186;  paralyzed  by 
X  Y  Z  affair,  202;  leaves  Con- 
gress, 218;  considered  revolu- 
tionary by  Federalists,  220,  221  ; 
its  success  considered  fatal  by 
Hamilton,  225  ;  prosecutes  Cros- 
well for  libel,  236 ;  felt  by  Ham- 
ilton to  threaten  revolution  in 
United  States,  251,  252,  254,  258, 
259,  260,  266,  267 ;  its  opinion  of 
Hamilton's  ability,  273. 

"  Democratic  societies,"  founded  on 
model  of  Parisian  clubs,  182 ;  de- 
nounced by  Washington,  183. 

Diplomatic  history  of  the  United 
States :  position  toward  European 
nations  in  1789,  153 ;  mission  of 
Gouverneur  Morris  to  England, 


302 


INDEX 


155 ;  negotiations  with  Hammond 
over  treaty,  156 ;  discussion  of 
neutrality  in  cabinet,  159-162; 
mission  of  Genet,  164-177;  Jay's 
mission  to  England,  175-177,  185, 
186 ;  Monroe's  mission  to  France, 
198;  rejection  of  Pinckney  by 
France,  198  ;  mission  of  Pinckney, 
Marshall,  and  Gerry,  200  ;  X  Y  Z 
affair,  201 ;  efforts  of  Talleyrand 
toward  reconciliation,  213,  214; 
the  second  commission,  214,  217, 
218. 

Duane,  James,  letter  of  Hamilton 
to,  on  weakness  of  confederacy, 


ENGLAND,  treaty  of  peace  with,  in 
1782,  37 ;  refuses  to  surrender 
Western  posts,  47,  50;  seeks  to 
ruin  American  commerce,  50,  53 ; 
its  constitution  imitated  in  federal 
convention,  59 ;  unfriendly  rela- 
tions with,  in  1788,  153;  policy 
towards,  advocated  by  Hamilton, 
154,  155  ;  sends  Hammond  as  min- 
ister, 156 ;  stupid  interference 
of,  with  commerce,  172;  issues 
"  provision  order,"  174 ;  renews 
it  during  excitement  over  Jay 
treaty,  189;  alliance  with,  not 
wished  by  Hamilton,  215,  257 ; 
issues  untimely  Orders  in  Coun- 
cil, 215. 

Excise,  recommended  by  Hamilton 
in  1790,  95;  objections  to  and 
reasons  for,  96-98. 

FAUCETTE,  name  of  Hamilton's  ma- 
ternal grandfather,  292. 

Fauchet,  J.  A.  8.,  replaces  Genet  as 
French  minister,  177. 

"  Federalist,"  the,  its  composition, 
65,  66 ;  its  character,  66,  67  ;  as  a 
literary  effort,  67-69. 

Federalist  party,  first  formed  in 
debate  on  payment  of  domestic 
debt,  118 ;  its  elements,  124,  128, 
134  ;  given  a  programme  by  Ham- 
ilton, 134, 135 ;  forces  a  vote  on 


resolutions  of  censure  on  Hamil* 
ton,  148  ;  its  foreign  policy,  161 ; 
wishes  to  prepare  for  war  with 
England,  174, 175;  disapproves  Jay 
treaty,  187  ;  selects  candidates  for 
presidency  and  vice-presidency  in 
1796, 191, 192 ;  discord  in,  over  can- 
didates, 193, 194;  elects  Adams,  but 
not  Pinckney,  194;  Adams  its 
nominal  leader  as  President,  194 ; 
Hamilton  its  real  leader,  195; 
one  faction  of,  wishes  war  with 
France,  199 ;  after  X  Y  Z,  whole 
party  wishes  war,  202 ;  sweeps 
the  country -in  elections,  202 ;  its 
leaders  alarmed  at  Adams's  course 
in  appointment  of  major-gener- 
als, 204;  torn  in  two  over  Ad- 
ams's proposed  mission  to  France, 
214;  anger  of  extremists  against 
Adams,  215 ;  saved  from  wreck 
by  Hamilton's  advice,  217,  218; 
success  of  its  foreign  policy,  218 ; 
misuses  its  supremacy  in  Congress, 
218,  219 ;  prevented  from  passing 
extreme  bills  by  Hamilton,  219; 
considers  Democrats  Jacobins, 
221 ;  continues  to  have  majority 
in  Congress,  221 ;  dissensions 
in,  222  ;  loses  hold  on  country, 
222,  223 ;  defeated  in  local  elec- 
tions, 223  ;  its  leaders  urge  sharp 
practice  in  New  York,  224,  225; 
quarrels  between  leaders  of,  226, 
227;  principally  ruined  by  Ad- 
ams's folly,  228;  again  nomi- 
nates Adams,  228 ;  defeated  by 
dissensions,  231,  232 ;  intrigues  to 
elect  Burr  President  instead  of 
Jefferson,  232,  233;  breaks  up 
after  defeat,  242 ;  scheme  for  its 
revival,  suggested  by  Hamilton, 
263-265;  Hamilton's  friends  in, 
274,  275. 

"Fenno's  Gazette,"  organ  of  Fed- 
eralists, 141. 

Finances  of  the  Revolution,  26; 
Hamilton's  letter  on,  26,  27,  29; 
condition  in  1782, 38,  39. 

Financial  history  :  organization  of 


INDEX 


Treasury  Department,  85,  86 ;  re- 
port on  public  credit,  87-95 ;  on 
funding  of  debt,  91,  92 ;  on  sink- 
ing fund,  92,  93  ;  report  on  ex- 
cise, 95,  96;  report  on  the  bank, 
98-102  ;  report  on  the  mint,  105 ; 
report  on  manufactures,  107  ;  de- 
bate on  and  adoption  of  these 
measures,  115-127,  129;  specula- 
tion and  panic,  131  ;  comments 
on  Hamilton's  policy,  131-133; 
further  measures  introduced,  145 ; 
defeated  by  Democrats,  146. 

Fleming,  Major,  commands  volun- 
teer corps  joined  by  Hamilton,  9. 

Florida,  its  seizure  urged  by  Ham- 
ilton, 209,  279. 

Foreign  policy  of  the  United  States, 
Hamilton's  views  on,  153-155, 160 ; 
adoption  of  neutrality,  160-161  ; 
refusal  to  join  France,  163,  164- 
166  ;  success  of  neutrality,  170- 
173  ;  policy  during  quasi-war,  215, 
216. 

France,  its  troops  in  Revolution,  20 ; 
their  liking  for  Hamilton,  25; 
abandoned  by  Franklin  and  oth- 
ers in  treaty  of  peace,  37  ;  its  self- 
seeking  policy  in  Revolution,  50 ; 
its  attitude  toward  the  confeder- 
acy, 50 ;  popular  gratitude  toward, 
in  1789,  153;  unfavorable  com- 
mercial relations,  153  ;  policy  to- 
ward, advocated  by  Hamilton, 
155 ;  question  of  relations  of 
United  States  with,  during  war 
with  England,  162  ;  treaty  obliga- 
tions with,  repudiated,  163,  164 ; 
feeling  against,  caused  by  Genet's 
excesses,  169,  170 ;  refuses  to  re- 
ceive Pinckney,  198 ;  its  treat- 
ment of  commissioners  in  X  Y  Z 
affair,  201 ;  war  with,  in  1798, 
213  ;  seeks  place,  213  ;  called  the 
"  Great  Monster  "  by  Hamilton, 
225. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  abused  for  vio- 
lating instructions  in  making 
peace,  36,  37;  praised  by  Hamil- 
ton, 37. 


Free  trade,  Hamilton's  criticisms 
of,  110,  112. 

French  Revolution,  its  beginnings 
influence  Jefferson,  123;  ap- 
plauded in  United  States,  157; 
its  excesses  alienate  Federalists, 
158 ;  continues  to  be  admired  by 
Democrats,  158,  168 ;  causes  one 
Federalist  wing  to  wish  war  with 
France,  199,  215;  its  probable 
failure  foreseen  in  1789  by  Ham- 
ilton, 250;  its  difference  from 
American  Revolution  insisted  on, 
253,  254 ;  its  influence  in  America 
dreaded,  258,  259 ;  plan  of  Hamil- 
ton to  counteract,  263,  264. 

Freneau,  Philip,  established  by  Jef- 
ferson as  editor  of  "  National  Ga- 
zette," 141;  attacks  Hamilton, 
141;  attacked  bitterly  by  him 
through  "Fenno's  Gazette,"  143, 
144 ;  upholds  Genet,  168. 

GALLATIN,  ALBERT,  the  only  Demo- 
cratic leader  left  in  Congress  after 
X  Y  Z  affair,  202. 

Gates,  Horatio,  defeats  Burgoyne, 
18;  his  great  reputation  in  New 
England,  18;  reluctant  to  send 
troops  to  Washington,  persuaded 
by  Hamilton,  19. 

Genet,  Edmond  Charles,  arrives  aa 
minister  from  French  republic, 
164 ;  his  character  and  policy, 
165  ;  fits  out  privateers,  165 ;  jour- 
ney to  Philadelphia,  165 ;  tries  to 
continue  sending  out  privateers, 
166;  aided  by  Jefferson  in  send- 
ing out  Little  Sarah,  167 ;  makes 
continual  demands  for  money, 
167,  168 ;  excited  by  signs  of  pop- 
ular support,  168 ;  becomes  in- 
creasingly violent,  his  recall  de- 
manded, 169, 170  ;  appeals  to  peo- 
ple against  Washington,  170 ;  loses 
influence,  170;  his  effect  in  cre- 
ating a  party  issue,  172  ;  replaced 
by  Fauchet,  177;  his  influence 
in  founding  Democratic  societies, 
182. 


304 


INDEX 


Gerry,  Elbridge,  appointed  on 
French  commission  by  Adams, 
200 ;  his  conduct  in  France,  200, 
201. 

Giles,  William  B.,  leads  Jefferson's 
attack  on  Hamilton  in  Congress, 
146;  introduces  resolutions  of 
censure  and  is  defeated,  148  ;  dis- 
comfited by  X  Y  Z  letters,  202. 

Greene,  Nathanael,  impressed  by 
Hamilton,  introduces  him  to 
Washington,  13 ;  Hamilton's  grat- 
itude and  respect  for,  13 ;  urges 
Hamilton  for  post  of  adjutant- 
general,  296. 

Grenville,  Lord,  negotiates  treaty 
with  Jay,  175. 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDEB,  birth  and 
ancestry,  1 ;  precocity,  1 ;  educa- 
tion, 2 ;  despises  clerkship,  2 ; 
manages  employer's  affairs,  2; 
attracts  attention  by  description 
of  hurricane,  3 ;  sent  by  relatives 
to  New  York  for  education,  3  ;  in 
school  at  Elizabethtown,  3,  4 ; 
his  youthful  literary  activity,  4; 
studies  at  King's  College,  4;  his 
independent  situation  in  New 
York,  5 ;  visits' Boston  in  1774,  6 ; 
decides  to  join  side  of  colonies, 
6;  speaks  to  people  at  patriot 
meeting  in  the  fields,  7 ;  writes 
successful  pamphlets  defending 
Congress,  9  ;  declines  offers  from 
Tories,  9 ;  joins  a  volunteer  corps, 
9  j  saves  Dr.  Cooper  from  a  patriot 
mob,  10 ;  also  Thurman,  11 ;  an- 
gered at  patriot  attack  on  Riving- 
ton's  Tory  press,  11 ;  raises  and 
commands  an  artillery  company, 
12  ;  drills  it  successfully,  13. 
In  the  Revolutionary  War.  In- 
troduced by  Greene  to  Washing- 
ton, 13 ;  acts  with  credit  in  battle 
of  Long  Island,  13  ;  also  at  White 
Plains,  and  in  the  New  Jersey 
campaign,  14 ;  appointed  aide  on 
Washington's  staff,  14;  wisdom 
of  his  choice  in  abandoning  line 


service,  15 ;  his  duties  as  staff 
officer,  15 ;  conducts  Washing, 
ton's  correspondence,  15 ;  not  to 
be  considered  as  responsible  for  it, 
16;  great  value  of  his  services, 
17  ;  growth  of  his  intellect  illus- 
trated by  the  dispatches,  17,  18  ; 
sent  to  Gates  to  get  reinforce- 
ments after  Saratoga,  18;  diffi- 
culty of  his  situation,  19 ;  suc- 
ceeds in  getting  troops  without 
causing  a  rupture,  19;  succeeds 
equally  well  with  Putnam,  19; 
sent  to  Newport  on  unsuccessful 
mission  to  French,  19,  20 ;  meets 
Mrs.  Arnold  and  Andre"  at  time  of 
West  Point  affair,  20;  his  deep 
feeling  for  Andre",  20 ;  resents 
a  reproof  from  Washington  and 
leaves  staff,  21;  his  youthful 
pride,  21,  22  ;  repels  Washington's 
advances  for  reconciliation,  23; 
storms  British  redoubt  at  York- 
town,  23 ;  leaves  the  army,  24 ; 
significance  of  his  military  career 
in  developing  character,  24  ;  wins 
warm  friends  among  Americans 
and  French,  25 ;  his  military  tal- 
ents, 25,  26. 

In  Law  and  Politics.  His 
strong  tendency  toward  govern- 
ment, 26 ;  writes  letter  to  Robert 
Morris  on  paper  currency,  26,  27 ; 
its  ability,  27 ;  proposes  contrac- 
tion, taxation,  loans,  and  a  bank, 
27,  28 ;  wishes  to  unite  moneyed 
classes  in  support  of  the  govern- 
ment, 28 ;  writes  to  Duane  on 
weakness  of  confederacy,  28,  29 ; 
urges  assumption  of  power  by 
Congress,  28 ;  urges  same  expe- 
dients to  Sears,  29;  again  urges 
bank  upon  Morris,  29;  ahead  of 
his  time  in  these  proposals,  30; 
marries  Miss  Schuyler,  31 ;  ad- 
vantages of  this  family  connec- 
tion, 31,  32 ;  refuses  General 
Schuyler 's  offers  of  assistance  and 
studies  law,  32;  his  hasty  but 
effective  preparation,  32,  33 ;  de« 


INDEX 


305 


dines,  in  favor  of  Laurens,  to 
be  commissioner  of  French  loan, 
33 ;  mentioned  for  peace  commis- 
sioner, 34;  appointed  receiver  of 
Continental  taxes  for  New  York, 
34;  makes  vigorous  but  unsuc- 
cessful efforts  to  get  money,  34 ; 
elected  to  Congress,  34,  35 ;  makes 
energetic  efforts  for  reform,  36 ; 
introduces  resolution  to  disclose 
secret  article  of  treaty  of  1782 
to  France,  37 ;  tries  to  induce 
Rhode  Island  to  consent  to  impost 
scheme,  38  ;  opposes  recommend- 
ing a  grant  for  term  of  years,  39  ; 
angered  at  Congressional  neglect 
of  army,  39 ;  condemns  Pennsyl- 
vania for  not  protecting  Congress 
against  mutineers,  41 ;  draws  reso- 
lutions of  thanks  to  Washington, 
41 ;  urges  in  vain  a  small  perma- 
nent army,  41 ;  tries  to  have  de- 
bates made  public,  41 ;  retires  to 
private  life,  42  ;  his  reputation  in- 
creased, 42  ;  his  early  democratic 
ideas  affected  by  his  experience, 
43,  44  ;  begins  to  advocate  aristo- 
cracy and  distrust  democracy,  44, 
45  ;  continues  active  in  New  York 
affairs,  45 ;  urges  payment  of  Brit- 
ish debts,  45 ;  defends  Tory  client 
against  "Trespass  Act,"  46; 
writes  pamphlets  advocating  am- 
nesty to  Tories,  47 ;  plan  of  oppo- 
nents to  murder  him,  47  ;  helps 
found  a  state  bank,  47  ;  opposes  a 
land  bank  scheme,  47;  active  in 
forming  the  Cincinnati,  47,  48. 
Advocate  of  the  Constitution. 
Plans  and  secures  sending  of  dele- 
gates from  New  York  to  Annapo- 
lis Convention,  53,  54 ;  drafts  ad- 
dress of  convention  calling  a  new 
convention  to  reorganize  the  gov- 
ernment, 54  ;  elected  to  New  York 
legislature,  54;  advocates  grant- 
ing a  permanent  revenue  to  Con- 
gress, 55  ;  defeated,  after  hot  de- 
bate, by  Clinton's  followers,  55; 
carries  resolution  to  send  dele- 


gates to  Federal  Convention,  56  ; 
elected  a  delegate  with  antago- 
nistic colleagues,  56 ;  his  agita- 
tion by  letters  and  pamphlets,  57  ; 
his  impotence  in  convention,  58 ; 
concentrates  all  force  on  one 
speech  advocating  a  strong  gov- 
ernment, 58,  59  ;  his  aristocratic 
plan,  59,  60  ;  his  aim  not  to  se- 
cure adoption  of  plan,  but  to 
stimulate  convention,  61 ;  effect 
of  his  speech,  61,  62 ;  withdraws 
from  debates,  but  signs  Constitu- 
tion, 62 ;  not  entirely  satisfied 
with  it,  but  advocates  it  vigor- 
ously, 63 ;  writes  "  Publius  "  let- 
ters, 65  ;  assisted  by  Madison  and 
Jay  in  their  writing,  66;  the 
"Federalist"  the  main  source  of 
his  reputation,  67-69 ;  leads  Fed- 
eralist minority  in  New  York  rat- 
ifying convention,  70 ;  not  dis- 
couraged by  outlook,  70  ;  bitterly 
attacked,  71 ;  his  vigorous  efforts, 
71 ;  succeeds  in  carrying  ratifica- 
tion by  a  majority  of  three,  72 ; 
magnitude  of  his  parliamentary 
victory,  72,  73  ;  his  high  rank  as 
orator,  74,  75;  elements  of  his 
success,  76-79;  carries  through 
Congress  an  ordinance  to  put  new 
government  in  operation,  79 ;  de- 
feated for  Congress,  79 ;  supports 
Yates  for  governor  in  hopes  of 
defeating  Clinton,  79 ;  makes  an 
error  in  not  choosing  a  stronger 
Federalist,  80  ;  causes  a  rupture 
with  the  Livingstons  by  insisting 
on  election  of  King  as  senator,  81 ; 
evil  effect  of  this  blunder,  81. 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Gen- 
erally looked  upon  as  proper  man 
for  the  Treasury,  83;  sacrifices 
law  practice  to  accept  it,  83,  84,- 
asked  by  Congress  for  numerous 
reports,  84,  85 ;  obliged  to  organ- 
ize department,  85,  86 ;  makes  his 
report  on  the  public  credit,  86; 
an  important  step  in  his  career, 
87,  88;  his  main  recommenda* 


306 


INDEX 


tions,  88-95 ;  states  objects  to  be 
gained  by  strong  credit,  88,  89; 
their  political  and  centralizing 
character  explained,  89,  90;  on 
funding  the  debt,  91,  92  ;  absence 
of  trickery  in  his  "  sinking  fund," 
92,  93  ;  defines  different  classes 
of  debt,  93-95 ;  suggests  sundry 
imposts,  95;  in  second  report 
urges  establishment  of  excise,  95 ; 
his  project  economically  sound, 
but  politically  dangerous,  95-97 ; 
his  purposes,  97,  98  ;  reports  on 
the  national  bank,  98-105  ;  its  ed- 
ucational purpose,  98,  99 ;  intends 
it  to  restore  business  confidence, 

100,  101 ;  and  to  aid  the  Treasury, 
101;   his  policy    still    continued, 

101,  102;     calls    upon    implied 
powers  to  justify  constitutionality 
of  the  bank,  103 ;  strength  of  his 
argument,  103,  104 ;  courage  and 
effectiveness  of  his  step,  104,  105 ; 
reports  on  the  mint,  105 ;  advo- 
cates a  double  standard,  105,  106 ; 
also  a  decimal  system,  106 ;  his 
report  on  manufactures,  107-113 ; 
his  purpose  here  also  mainly  ed- 
ucational, 107  ;  not  a  follower  of 
Adam  Smith,  108;   urges   neces- 
sity of  stimulating  manufactures, 
109;  urges  economic  independence, 
110;    answers     objections,     110, 
111 ;   suggests  internal  improve- 
ments, 111 ;  practical  character  of 
his  reasoning,   112,   113;  success 
of  his  financial  policy  in  estab- 
lishing American  policy  and  pro- 
sperity, 113,  114 ;  admits  cases  of 
occasional  injustice  in  paying  do- 
mestic debt,  117;  abandoned  by 
Madison    on    question,   117 ;    his 
centralizing  policy  detected  and 
attacked,    119,    120;    relies    on 
higher  classes  to  sustain  him,  120 ; 
willing  to  use  situation  of  capital 
as  make-weight  for  assumption  of 
state  debt,  122  ;  selects  Jefferson 
to  aid  him,  123;  makes  arrange- 
ment with   him,  125;    later  ac- 


cused by  Jefferson  of  deception, 
125  ;  absurdity  of  the  charge,  126 ; 
succeeds  in  assumption  plan,  127 ; 
brings  on  debate  by  his  suggestion 
as  to  device  on  coinage,  127  ;  car- 
ries national  bank,  129 ;  writes 
reply  to  Jefferson's,  Randolph's, 
and  Madison's  arguments  against 
the  bank,  130;  his  theories  of 
protection  denounced  but  fol- 
lowed by  opponents,  130 ;  tries  to 
discourage  speculation,  131 ;  at 
fault  as  to  rate  of  interest,  131 ; 
weakness  of  criticisms  on  his  esti- 
mates, 131,  132  ;  real  value  of  his 
financial  policy,  132, 133 ;  assumes 
leadership  of  Federalists,  134  ;  be- 
comes object  of  anti-Federalist 
opposition,  136 ;  accused  of  "  Brit- 
ish" sympathies  and  of  being  a 
monarchist,  136 ;  held  responsible 
for  speculation  and  panic,  137 ; 
said  to  have  hoodwinked  Wash- 
ington and  other  Federalists,  137  ; 
discovers  that  Jefferson  and  Mad- 
ison are  organizing  a  party  against 
him,  139  ;  attacked  by  Freneau, 
141 ;  his  financial  measures  at- 
tacked by  Mason,  141 ;  replies  in 
letter  to  Washington,  142  ;  loses 
his  temper  and  attacks  Freneau, 
143;  error  of  his  course,  144; 
exposes  Jefferson,  144,  145;  at 
Washington's  request,  promises 
to  cease,  145;  introduces  new 
financial  measures  to  redeem  debt, 
146 ;  defeated  by  Democrats,  146 ; 
attacked  in  Congress  by  Giles  for 
corruption,  146,  147  ;  also  by  Jef- 
ferson, 147 ;  replies  with  com- 
plete success,  147,  148  ;  exhausted 
by  his  efforts,  148 ;  fails  to  im- 
press the  rank  and  file,  149 ;  but 
stands  higher  with  his  party,  150 ; 
considers  national  credit  neces- 
sary to  proper  foreign  relations, 
153 ;  wishes  commercial  relations 
with  England,  154 ;  advocates  im- 
partiality in  treatment  of  foreign 
countries,  154;  an  admirer  at 


INDEX 


307 


English  institutions,  but  not  of 
England,  155 ;  his  attitude  toward 
France,  155;  good  effect  of  his 
financial  success  in  England,  155  ; 
takes  part  in  negotiations  with 
Hammond,  156;  considers  him- 
self the  prime  minister,  156 ;  sup- 
ported by  Washington  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  Jefferson,  156,  157 ; 
loses  sympathy  with  French  Re- 
volution, 158 ;  sends  for  Washing- 
ton on  news  of  war  between 
France  and  England,  159 ;  dreads 
war,  160 ;  thinks  question  more 
safely  handled  by  executive  than 
Congress,  160  ;  submits  outline  of 
neutrality  policy  to  cabinet,  160  ; 
his  share  in  its  adoption  by  the 
country,  161 ;  advocates  caution 
toward  new  French  government, 
162;  holds  that  country  is  not 
bound  by  previous  treaties,  163 ; 
wisdom  of  his  argument,  164 ;  ad- 
vocates prevention  of  privateer- 
ing by  French  in  American  waters, 
165;  urges  severe  measures  in 
Little  Sarah  case,  166;  resists 
Genet's  demands  on  the  Treasury, 
167,168;  writes  "Pacificus"  pa- 
pers defending  neutrality,  169; 
urges  peremptory  demand  for  re- 
call of  Genet,  and  publication 
of  correspondence,  169,  170;  de- 
feated by  Jefferson,  170;  wishes 
to  suspend  Genet  from  his  func- 
tions, 170  ;  success  of  his  policy, 
170,  171 ;  opposes,  on  party 
grounds,  sending  Hammond  cor- 
respondence to  Congress,  173 ; 
supplies  Smith  with  a  speech 
against  Madison's  proposal  to  dis- 
criminate in  duties  against  Eng- 
land, 174;  urges  active  measures 
against  England  after  "Provision 
Order,"  174;  suggests  a  special 
mission  to  England,  175 ;  urged 
by  Washington  to  go,  176 ;  recom- 
mends Jay,  176;  drafts  his  in- 
structions, 176 ;  would  probably 
have  made  a  good  commissioner, 


176;  reasons  why  Democrats  op- 
posed him,  177  ;  continues,  owing 
to  French  Revolution,  to  fear 
Democracy,  177,  178;  considers 
his  views  confirmed  by  Whiskey 
Rebellion,  178;  tries  to  render 
execution  of  excise  law  easy,  179 ; 
ready,  in  1792,  for  force,  179; 
drafts  a  proclamation  for  Wash- 
ington, 180 ;  prepares  measures  of 
repression,  180  ;  accompanies  the 
expedition,  181 ;  his  forbearance 
toward  insurgents,  181, 182  ;  fears 
Democrat  club's,  183;  sustains 
Washington  in  his  denunciation 
of  them,  183;  demands  further 
inquiry  into  his  conduct,  184 ; 
passes  successful  scrutiny,  184; 
resigns,  owing  to  private  affairs, 
184. 

Leader  of  the  Federalist  Party. 
Does  not  fear  the  agitation  against 
Jay,  185  ;  disappointed  by  treaty, 
186;  attempts  in  vain  to  defend 
it  in  New  York,  187  ;  writes  "  Ca- 
millus"  papers  in  its  defense, 
188;  their  effectiveness,  188;  in- 
dignant with  English  provision 
order,  189 ;  counsels  Washington 
to  ratify  treaty,  190 ;  aids  him  by 
letters  and  in  press,  190,  191 ;  not 
the  leader  of  the  people,  191 ;  an 
unsuitable  candidate  for  presi- 
dency, 191 ;  does  not  consider 
himself  a  candidate,  192;  urges 
equal  voting  for  Adams  and  Pinck- 
ney,  193;  indifferent  to  possibil- 
ity of  election  of  Pinckney,  193 ; 
probably  prefers  Pinckney,  193; 
error  of  his  policy,  194;  lack  of 
harmony  between  him  and  Adams, 
195  ;  his  view  of  Adams,  196 ;  anx- 
ious to  retain  leadership,  196 ;  not 
a  difficult  person  to  deal  with, 
197  ;  on  Adams's  refusal  to  con- 
sult, tries  to  force  him,  197,  198  ; 
dislikes  French  republic,  but 
wishes  to  avoid  war  if  possible, 
199 ;  agrees  substantially  as  to 
policy  with  Adams,  199 ;  wishes 


308 


INDEX 


him  to  place  Madison  or  Jef- 
icrsou  on  the  French  mission, 
200;  wishes  rigid  instructions, 
201 ;  nominated  ranking  major- 
general  by  Washington  in  provi- 
sional army,  203  ;  refused  the  lead- 
ing position  by  Adams,  203  ;  event- 
ually receives  it,  204;  behaves  well, 
as  a  rule,  although  too  self-assert- 
ive, 205 ;  begins  work  of  organi- 
zation, 205 ;  his  plans  approved 
by  Washington,  205,  206;  sends 
a  bill  to  Congress,  206 ;  makes 
other  recommendations,  207  ;  ad- 
vises the  cabinet  secretaries,  207  ; 
admirable  character  of  his  work, 
208  ;  plans  campaign  in  the  South- 
west, 209  ;  always  an  advocate  of 
free  Mississippi  navigation  and 
westward  expansion,  209;  states- 
manship of  his  views,  210;  his 
large  views  of  the  ascendency  of 
the  United  States  in  America, 

210,  211 ;  interested  in  Miranda's 
schemes  against  Spanish  America, 

211,  212;   but  does  not   commit 
himself  to  their  support,  212,  213 ; 
does  not  wish  war  with  France, 
215;  nor  alliance  with  England, 
215;  disgusted    at  Adams's  pro- 
posed mission,  216 ;  checks  anger 
of  Federalists,  and  advises  a  com- 
mission of  three,  217  ;  urges  delay 
upon  Adams,   217  ;  urges  modifi- 
cation of  first  drafts  of  Alien  and 
Sedition  Acts,  219 ;  supports  them 
as    passed,    219,    220;    does  not 
think    Democrats   revolutionists, 
but  fears  them  as  dangerous,  220 ; 
urges    a   repressive  policy,  221 ; 
wishes  Congress  to  condemn  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  Resolutions, 
222 ;  makes  strenuous  efforts  to 
carry  New  York,  223 ;  beaten  by 
Burr,  223 ;    proposes   to    Jay  to 
summon  special  session  of  legisla- 
ture and  give  election  of  electors 
to    districts,    224;    unscrupulous 
character    of   the    scheme,    224; 
driven  to  it  by  fear  of  the  revolu- 


tionary tendencies  of  Democrata, 
225  ;  called  a  British  sympathize! 
by  Adams,  226 ;  writes  courte- 
ously, asking  to  be  exonerated, 
226,  227  ;  gives  Adams's  son-in-law 
a  place  in  the  army,  227  ;  again 
advises  an  equal  vote  for  Ad- 
ams and  Pinckney,  228 ;  probably 
means  to  elect  Pinckney,  229; 
writes  a  pamphlet  attacking  Ad- 
ams, 229 ;  its  theft  and  publica- 
tion by  Burr,  229  ;  its  folly,  229, 
230 ;  receives  information  from 
cabinet  officers,  230  ;  not  guilty  of 
bad  faith,  230,  231 ;  causes  defeat 
of  Adams,  231  ;  prevents  Federal- 
ists in  Congress  from  choosing 
Burr  President  over  Jefferson, 
232,  233. 

Professsional  Life.  Profits  by 
laws  against  Tories  to  become 
leader  of  the  bar,  234 ;  after  Jef- 
ferson's election  leaves  public 
life,  235 ;  achieves  high  success  as 
a  jury  lawyer,  235  ;  defends  Cros- 
well  against  Democratic  prosecu- 
tion for  libel,  236  ;  description  of 
his  argument,  237,  238;  breaks 
down  testimony  of  Croucher  in  a 
murder  case,  238-240;  his  great 
success  as  a  jury  lawyer  due  to 
his  reasoning  power,  240,  241 ; 
emotional,  but  not  rhetorical,  241, 
242 ;  baffles  Burr's  intrigues  with 
the  Federalists,  243;  denounces 
schemes  of  secession,  and  breaks 
up  coalition  of  Burr  with  New 
York  Federalists,  243;  not  anx- 
ious to  fight  Burr,  but  accepts  his 
challenge,  244;  recognizes  the 
duelist's  code,  245 ;  willing  to  an- 
swer to  Burr  for  what  he  had  said, 
245,  246 ;  aids  Burr  in  pecuniary 
difficulties,  246  ;  prepares  for  the 
duel,  246;  killed  by  Burr,  247; 
popular  indignation  at  his  death, 
247  ;  leaves  statement  of  his  rea- 
sons for  lighting,  248 ;  discussion 
of  them,  249-268;  as  early  as 
1789  dreads  evil  results  from 


INDEX 


309 


French  Revolution,  250,  251 ;  anx- 
ious as  to  Revolutionary  feeling  in 
Virginia,  251  ;  and  elsewhere,  252  ; 
denies  any  real  analogy  between 
American  and  French  revolu- 
tions, 252-254;  begins  to  dread 
outbreaks  in  New  York,  254  ; 
advocates  strict  impartiality  in 
foreign  relations,  255,  256;  op- 
poses an  alliance  with  England, 

257  ;  declines  appointment  to  U.  S. 
Senate  on  personal  grounds,  257  ; 
but  admits  a  crisis  may  arise  to 
call  him  forth,  258;  fears  inten- 
tion of  Democrats  to  make  United 
States  a  mere  province  of  France, 

258  ;  alarmed  at  Southern  section- 
alism,   259 ;  wishes    to    have    an 
army  ready  to  suppress  insurrec- 
tion,   259,    260;    in    1799    thinks 
time  has  come  to  attack  Demo- 
crat)'-  party  in  every  way,   260, 
261 ;  urges  Hoffman  to  prosecute 
libelous  Democratic  newspapers, 
260,  261 ;  despondent  at  collapse 
of  Federalists,   261,   262;    thinks 
his  efforts  wasted,  262  ;  suggests 
policy  for  Federalists  to  pursue  to 
regain  lost  ground,  263-265  ;  urges 
them    to  appeal  to  passions  and 
vanity  of  men,  264;   proposes  a 
Christian  Constitutional  Society, 
264 ;    wishes    to  employ  philan- 
thropy and  a  campaign  of  educa- 
tion in  cities,   265 ;  opposes  dis- 
union as  not  a  real  remedy  for 
democracy,   266 ;   apprehends    an 
outbreak  of  anarchy,  266,  267  ;  ex- 
pects to  be  the  man  to  lead  forces 
of  order,  267  ;  his  great  error,  267  ; 
fights  Burr  in  order  to  avoid  im- 
putations on  his  courage  when  the 
crisis  should  come,  267,  268. 

Character  and  Services.  Pub- 
licity of  his  entire  life,  268,  269  ; 
personal  appearance,  269,  270 ; 
eloquence,  269  ;  power  over  men, 
270,  271  ;  beloved  in  private  life, 
271 ;  self-confidence,  271,  272 ; 
strong  passions,  272 ;  opinion  of 


his  abilities  held  by  opponents, 
273;  compared  to  Webster,  273, 
274;  statements  of  Kent,  274; 
character  and  fidelity  of  his 
friends,  275;  either  loved  or 
hated,  275;  not  a  manager  of 
men,  275 ;  not  able  to  follow, 
275 ;  independence,  obstinacy,  and 
boldness,  276 ;  his  manly  action 
in  the  Reynolds  affair,  276;  na- 
ture of  his  ambition,  277  ;  cares 
for  achievement,  not  office,  277 ; 
success  of  his  life,  277 ;  a  repre- 
sentative of  ideas,  278  ;  an  oppo- 
nent of  democracy,  278 ;  an  ad- 
vocate of  nationality,  279;  influ- 
ence of  his  ideas  on  United  States 
history  and  institutions,  280  ;  ver- 
satility and  strength  of  his  char- 
acter, 281  ;  his  standing  in  his- 
tory, 281  ;  discussion  of  his  age 
and  parentage,  282-295 ;  alleged 
by  Bancroft  to  have  been  older 
than  he  himself  admits,  283,  284  ; 
question  as  to  his  signature  of  a 
deed  in  1766,  284,  285 ;  his  own 
statement,  285 ;  dealings  in  later 
life  with  relatives,  286;  said  by 
tradition  to  have  been  illegiti- 
mate, 286;  statements  of  Yard, 
according  to  Pickering,  concern- 
ing Hamilton's  illegitimate  parent- 
age, 287-291;  these  statements 
evidently  mere  gossip,  291  ;  con- 
flicting statements  of  J.  C.  Ham- 
ilton, 292,  293  ;  probable  truth  of 
Hamilton's  own  assertions,  294, 
295;  his  leaving  Washington's 
staff  the  result  of  dissatisfied  am- 
bition, 295,  296. 

Characteristics.  General  sketch., 
269-281 ;  unfavorable  views,  142, 
147,  273;  ambition,  2,  83,  191, 
277  ;  audacity  and  courage,  7,  10, 
11, 13, 14, 17,  70, 177, 244-246, 276 ; 
charm  of  manner,  25,  56;  cool- 
ness, 13  ;  directness,  126,  127,  241, 
276 ;  eloquence,  7,  8,  59,  72,  74- 
79,  137,  148,  241 ;  energy,  4,  13, 
34,  36,  55,  77,  78,  170,  180,  181, 


310 


INDEX 


201,  223;  generosity,  246,  271; 
imperiousness,  80, 126, 205  ;  integ- 
rity, 147,  230,  231 ;  justice,  6,  45- 
47 ;  lack  of  managing  ability,  19, 
81,  126,  148,  149,  193,  194,  223, 
275 ;  lack  of  popularity,  24,  43, 
149 ;  keenness  of  mind,  17,  19,  61, 
63,  217;  leadership,  56,  71-75, 
134,  136,  191,  195,  217,  233,  242, 
275;  legal  ability,  235-242;  lit- 
erary  ability,  9,  15,  16,  17,  65,  69, 
114,  188;  military  ability,  26; 
organizing  skill,  85,  265-268  ;  par- 
tisanship in  politics,  173, 224, 225  ; 
passionateness,  80,  113,  229,  230, 
272,  276 ;  personal  appearance, 
269-271;  precocity,  1,  2,  12,  15, 
284;  self-confidence,  14,  17,  21, 
70,  156,  176,  271,  272;  self-con- 
trol,  14,  181,  187,  216,  233;  sym- 
pathy, 20,  17,  271;  systematic 
habits,  33. 

Political  Opinions.  His  place  in 
United  States  history,  132,  133, 
184,  277-281;  absence  of  local 
feeling,  122 ;  respect  for  law,  or- 
der, and  authority,  6,  10,  11,  12, 
43,  89,  215 ;  on  American  feeling, 

249,  278,  279 ;  aristocracy,  60,  90, 
128,    278;    assumption    of    state 
debts,  95 ;  bimetallism,  106 ;  Brit- 
ish   Constitution,    59,    136,    155; 
confederation,  28,  29,  39,  44,  54, 
60;  Constitution,  60,  62,  63,  65- 
67,  179,  264,  266 ;  centralization, 
28,  29,  44,   60,   221;   democracy, 
45,  61,  177-179,  215,  267 ;  Demo- 
cratic  party,   183,   220,  225,  251, 
254,  258-261,  266-267;  disunion, 
222,  243,  266 ;  England,  154,  174, 
189,  215,  255,  257 ;  excise,  95-97, 
179 ;   finances  of    the  confedera- 
tion, 26,  27,  38,  39 ;  France,  154, 
155;    French    mission,   199,   225, 

250,  252,  253 ;  French  Revolution, 
J58,  163,   178,  199,  215 ;  funding 
debt,   91,   92,  131,  146,  184;  for- 
eign policy,  153-155,  159-160,  163, 
164, 165, 166, 169, 171, 256  ;  implied 
powera  of  Constitution,  103-105, 


130;  Jay  treaty,  186,  187,  190} 
national  bank,  28,  29,  98-101 ;  na- 
tional  government,  88,  89,  97, 
101,  104,  114,  122,  182;  paper 
money,  27,  47;  party  manage- 
ment, 264,  265;  protection,  107- 
113,  130;  public  credit,  86-95; 
sinking  fund,  92,  93,  146;  stanu- 
ing  army,  41,  259 ;  Tories,  45-47  } 
treaty  of  peace,  37 ;  western  ex- 
pansion, 208-213. 

Hamilton,  James,  father  of  Alexan- 
der Hamilton,  doubts  as  to  his 
paternity,  288-294;  his  identity, 
294. 

Hamilton,  James,  writes  to  Alexan- 
der Hamilton  for  money,  286; 
Hamilton's  reply,  286  ;  his  exist- 
ence apparently  ignored  by  J.  C. 
Hamilton,  292. 

Hamilton,  John  CM  fails  to  throw 
light  on  youth  of  his  father,  2 ; 
contradictory  statements  concern* 
ing  his  ancestry,  292,  293. 

Hammond,  George,  first  British 
minister  to  United  States,  156; 
his  negotiations,  156;  protests 
against  Genet's  actions,  165. 

Hancock,  John,  opposes  strong  cen- 
tral government  as  dangerous  to 
his  local  leadership,  51  ;  resigns 
governorship,  52  ;  converted  from 
opposition  to  Constitution,  73. 

Higginson,  Stephen,  in  Continental 
Congress  of  1782,  35  ;  votes  with 
Hamilton  against  recommending 
grants,  39. 

U oilman,  Josiah  0.,  attorney-gen- 
eral, urged  by  Hamilton  to  prose- 
cute a  Democratic  paper,  260. 

IMPLIED  POWERS,  involved  in  Ham- 
ilton's plan  of  a  bank,  103';  hia 
defense  of  them,  103,  104,  130; 
involved  in  report  on  manufac- 
tures, 107 ;  denied  by  Jefferson, 
Madison,  and  Randolph,  129. 

JAY,  John,  assists  in  writing  "  Fed- 
eralist, "  66;  supports  Hamilton 


INDEX 


311 


in  New  York  convention,  70  ;  sent 
on  special  mission  to  England, 
176 ;  inferior  to  Hamilton  in  firm- 
ness and  audacity,  177;  popular 
feeling  against,  after  treaty,  187  ; 
unsuitable  as  candidate  for  presi- 
dency, 192 ;  refuses  to  adopt  Ham- 
ilton's proposal  to  defeat  the  will 
of  New  York,  224  ;  wishes  to  ap- 
point Hamilton  to  fill  vacancy  in 
Senate,  257  ;  letter  of  Hamilton 
to,  on  "  crisis,"  258. 

Jay  treaty  :  Jay's  mission,  175,  177, 
185 ;  condemnation  of  treaty, 
186-188;  ratification  of  treaty, 
190. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  returns  to  Amer- 
ica from  Paris,  123;  doubtful 
whether  to  oppose  or  support  the 
Constitution,  124;  helps  Hamil- 
ton to  secure  assumption  of  state 
debt,  125 ;  later  claims  he  was 
outwitted,  125,  126 ;  absurdity  of 
the  statement,  126  ;  gives  Wash- 
ington an  opinion  against  consti- 
tutionality of  the  bank,  130 ;  plans 
"allowances"  for  fisheries,  and 
denounces  protection,  130;  de- 
cides to  oppose  policy  of  adminis- 
tration, 137,  138 ;  adopts  cautious 
methods,  138 ;  furnishes  party 
name,  organization,  and  catch- 
words, 139 ;  his  success  as  a  party 
builder,  140;  prints  Paine's 
"Rights  of  Man"  with  preface 
attacking  Adams,  140;  tries  to 
explain  it  away,  141 ;  helps  Fre- 
neau  to  found  "National  Ga- 
zette," 141  ;  deprecates  to  Wash- 
ington Hamilton's  measures,  141 ; 
stirs  up  others  to  attack  them, 
141 ;  attacked  by  Hamilton,  143 ; 
feels  the  attack  keenly,  144,  145  ; 
complains  of  it  to  Washington, 
145 ;  plans  to  prove  Hamilton 
guilty  of  corruption,  146,  147; 
realizes  complete  failure  of  at- 
tack, 150;  fails  to  obtain  com- 
mercial advantages  from  France, 
153;  hampered  by  Washington's 


preference  for  Hamilton,  157; 
loves  France  and  hates  England, 
but  dreads  war,  159;  advises 
Washington  to  throw  responsibil- 
ity on  Congress,  159;  advocates 
close  connection  with  France,  164 ; 
opposes  compensation  for  French 
prizes,  166  ;  allows  Genet  to  send 
Little  Sarah  to  sea,  167;  pri- 
vately upholds  him,  169  ;  opposes 
publication  of  Genet  correspond- 
ence, 169,  170;  prevents  suspen- 
sion of  Genet,  170 ;  effect  of  his 
course  hi  the  whole  affair,  171 ; 
his  defeats  and  false  position  lead 
to  resignation,  172 ;  sends  Genet 
and  Hammond  correspondence  to 
Congress  with  report  on  com- 
merce, 173 ;  ability  of  his  corre- 
spondence, 173;  signs  but  disap- 
proves proclamation  against  ex- 
cise riots,  180  ;  on  Hamilton's 
opinion  of  Jay  treaty,  186 ;  dis- 
turbed by  Hamilton's  "  Camil- 
lus  "  papers,  188  ;  urges  Madison 
to  reply,  188 ;  elected  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  194 ;  his  nomination  on 
peace  commission  urged  by  Ham- 
ilton, 200  ;  overwhelmed  by  pub- 
lication of  X  Y  Z  letters,  202 ; 
carries  out  Hamilton's  plans  in 
acquiring  Louisiana,  210;  looked 
upon  as  a  Jacobin  in  New  Eng- 
land, 220  ;  writes  Kentucky  reso- 
lutions, 222;  elected  President 
over  Burr  by  House  of  Represent- 
atives through  Hamilton's  influ- 
ence, 233 ;  Croswell  sued  for  libel 
against,  236;  determines  to  ruin 
Burr,  243 ;  opinion  of  Hamilton's 
abilities,  273 ;  sustained  by  Ham- 
ilton in  acquisition  of  Louisiana, 
279  ;  representative  of  theories  op- 
posed to  Hamilton's,  279 ;  partial 
success  of,  280. 

KENT,  JAMES,  description  of  Ham- 
ilton's argument  in  the  Croswell 
case,  237,  238 ;  on  his  abilities, 

274 


312 


INDEX 


Kentucky,  breaks  off  from  Virginia, 
50  ;  its  resolutions  in  1798,  222. 

King,  Rufus,  chosen  Senator  from 
New  York  at  Hamilton's  dicta- 
tion, 81  ;  as  minister  to  England 
consulted  by  Hamilton  concern- 
ing Miranda,  212 ;  letter  of  Ham- 
ilton to,  on  national  feeling,  255. 

King's  College,  studies  of  Hamil- 
ton at,  4  ;  its  president  mobbed  as 
a  Tory,  10,  11. 

Knox,  Hugh,  gives  Hamilton  letters 
to  New  York,  3  ;  letters  to  Ham- 
ilton from,  286. 

Knox,  Henry,  urges  strong  mea- 
sures in  case  of  Little  Sarah,  166; 
appointed  major-general  in  provi- 
sional army,  203 ;  refuses  to  serve 
under  Hamilton,  204. 

LAFAYETTE,  MABQUIS  DE,  his  friend- 
ship for  Hamilton,  25  ;  his  mo- 
tives in  aiding  America,  50  ;  let- 
ter of  Hamilton  to,  on  dangers 
of  failure  of  French  Revolution, 
250;  explains  causes  of  Hamil- 
ton's leaving  Washington's  staff, 
295,  296. 

Lansing,  John,  Jr.,  chosen  delegate 
to  federal  convention,  56 ;  opposes 
Constitution  in  New  York  conven- 
tion, 70. 

Laureus,  John,  says  Hamilton  held 
"pen  of  Junius,"  as  Washing- 
ton's aide,  17 ;  appointed  com- 
missioner of  French  loan  through 
Hamilton's  withdrawal  in  his  fa- 
vor, 33. 

Legislature  of  New  York,  controlled 
by  Tories,  7 ;  attempt  to  influ- 
ence by  patriots,  7  ;  orders  rais- 
ing of  artillery  company,  12  ;  ad- 
vocates a  better  union  of  States, 
34;  refuses  to  adopt  tax  reform, 
34  ;  elects  Hamilton  to  Congress, 
34  ;  passes  acts  oppressive  to  To- 
ries, 46,  47  ;  denounces  judges  for 
decision  in  Trespass  Act  case 
46 ;  elects  delegates  to  Annapolis 
convention,  54 ;  refuses  a  perma- 


nent revenue  to  Congress,  55; 
elects  delegates  to  Constitutional 
Convention,  56 ;  calls  a  state  con- 
vention, 69;  refuses  to  reelect 
Hamilton  to  Congress,  79  ;  refuses 
to  choose  presidential  electors,  79 ; 
carried  by  Federalists,  80 ;  elects 
senators,  80,  81 ;  appropriates 
money  for  defense  of  New  York 
harbor,  205. 

Lewis,  Morgan,  opposes  King  as 
Senator  from  New  York,  80,  81 ; 
his  opinion  in  Croswell  libel  case, 
236,  237  ;  elected  governor  of  New 
York  over  Burr,  243. 

"Liberty  Boys,"  in  New  York, 
mob  the  Tories,  10. 

Little  Sarah  case,  166,  167. 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  his  plan  for 
a  land  bank  defeated  by  Ham- 
ilton, 47;  supports  Hamilton  in 
state  convention,  70. 

Livingston  family,  its  hold  on  New 
York,  80;  advocates  Constitu- 
tion, 80;  opposes  King  for  sena- 
tor, 81 ;  quarrels  with  Hamilton 
and  his  friends,  81. 

Long  Island,  battle  of,  13. 

Louisiana,  its  acquisition  urged  by 
Hamilton,  209,  257,  279. 

Luzerne,  Chevalier  de,  leads  Con- 
gress to  place  peace  negotiations 
under  French  control,  37. 

Lytton,  Peter,  Hamilton's  uncle, 
292. 

MADISON,  JAMES,  in  Continental 
Congress  of  1782,  35  ;  assists  in 
writing  "Federalist,"  66;  advo- 
cates discrimination  in  domestic 
debt,  117  ;  begins  to  yield  to  Vir- 
ginia sentiment  against  Federal- 
ists, 117, 118  ;  argues  against  con- 
stitutionality of  bank,  129  ;  plans 
"allowances"  for  fisheries,  de- 
nounces protection,  130  ;  aids  Jef- 
ferson in  organizing  opposition, 
139  ;  plans  to  convict  Hamilton  of 
corruption,  146  ;  humiliated  by 
voting  for  resolutions  of  censure 


INDEX 


313 


on  Hamilton,  148  ;  introduces  re- 
solutions for  discriminating  duties 
against  England,  173 ;  opposes 
appointment  of  Hamilton  on  mis- 
sion to  England,  175  ;  declines  to 
enter  controversy  against  Hamil- 
ton, 188  ;  his  nomination  on  peace 
commission  urged  by  Hamilton, 
200  ;  looked  upon  as  a  Jacobin  in 
New  England,  220. 

Manufactures,  Hamilton's  report  on, 
107. 

Marshall,  John,  his  opinion  on  con- 
stitutionality of  bank  compared 
with  Hamilton's,  103,  104;  ap- 
pointed by  Adams  on  French  com- 
mission, 200 ;  his  return  after 
X  Y  Z  affair,  202  ;  sustains  Ad- 
ams in  affair  of  French  mission, 
222;  ranks  Hamilton  next  to 
Washington,  281. 

Maryland,  commercial  convention 
with  Virginia,  53. 

Mason,  Col.,  criticises  policy  of  ad- 
ministration, 141 ;  answered  by 
Hamilton,  142. 

Massachusetts,  quarrels  with  New 
York,  51  ;  suppresses  Shays's  Re- 
bellion, 51,  52;  calls  for  a  new 
convention,  52  ;  struggle  in,  over 
ratification  of  Constitution,  73. 

McHenry,  James,  describes  standing 
of  Hamilton  in  Congress,  42,  43 ; 
as  secretary  of  war  asks  Hamil- 
ton's advice,  207  ;  driven  by  Ad- 
ams from  cabinet,  226. 

Mint,  Hamilton's  report  on,  105-107. 

Miranda,  Francisco  de,  plans  for 
revolution  in  South  America,  211  ; 
his  relations  with  Hamilton,  212, 
213. 

Mississippi,  navigation  of,  upheld 
by  Hamilton  in  Continental  Con- 
gress, 209. 

Mitchell,  Mrs.,  aunt  of  Hamilton, 
her  visit  to  New  York,  288,  290, 
293,  293. 

Monroe,  James,  not  the  real  author 
of  "Monroe  doctrine,"  161;  op- 
poses selection  of  Hamilton  for 


English  mission,  175;  career  in 
France  recalled,  198;  connection 
with  Reynolds  affair,  276. 

"Monroe  doctrine,"  really  estab- 
lished by  Washington's  adminis- 
tration, 161 ;  its  widest  extension 
foreseen  by  Hamilton,  210,  211. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  praises  Hamil- 
ton's speech  at  federal  conven- 
tion, 58  ;  warns  Hamilton  of  diffi- 
culties of  Treasury  Department, 
83  ;  on  importance  of  finance  in 
United  States  history,  113 ;  sounds 
England  on  renewal  of  diplomatic 
relations,  155 ;  despondent  letter 
of  Hamilton  to,  261. 

Morris,  Robert,  letters  of  Hamilton 
to,  on  finances  of  confederation, 
26,  29  ;  appoints  Hamilton  Conti- 
nental tax-receiver  for  New  York; 
34  ;  resigns  from  Treasury,  38  ; 
urges  Hamilton  for  secretary  of 
treasury,  83. 

Murray,  William  Vans,  nominated 
by  Adams  minister  to  France, 
214;  member  of  peace  commis- 
sion, 217. 

"NATIONAL  GAZETTE,"  founded  by 
Jefferson  to  attack  Federalists, 
141 ;  attacked  by  Hamilton,  143, 
145. 

Newburgh  addresses,  40 ;  their  im- 
portance, 40,  41. 

New  England,  admiration  for  Gate^ 
after  Saratoga,  18  ;  condemns  Jay 
treaty,  187  ;  its  leaders  wish  war 
with  France,  199 ;  considers  Jef- 
ferson 'and  Madison  Jacobins,  220 ; 
plans  secession,  243. 

New  Jersey,  gives  general  powers  to 
Annapolis  delegates,  54. 

New  York,  strength  of  Tories  in,  6, 
7  ;  mobs  in,  against  Tories,  10,  11 ; 
attempt  of  Hamilton  to  reform 
taxation  in,  34;  hatred  of  Tories 
in,  45 ;  quarrels  with  other  States, 
51,  52,  53  ;  importance  of  adhe- 
sion to  Constitution,  64,  65  ;  op- 
position in,  to  new  Constitution, 


314 


INDEX 


65 ;  convention  in,  69,  70 ;  parties 
in,  70 ;  struggle  in  convention, 
70-72  ;  victory  of  Federalists,  72  ; 
its  importance,  72-75 ;  celebra- 
tion of  ratification  in,  78;  de- 
mands a  new  convention,  79  ;  un- 
represented in  first  Congress,  79  ; 
election  of  Clinton  over  Yates  as 
governor,  80  ;  mob  in,  against  Jay 
treaty,  187  ;  carried  by  Burr  for 
Democrats  against  Hamilton,  223  ; 
scheme  of  Hamilton  for  repairing 
loss,  224,  225  ;  attempt  of  Burr  to 
gain  governorship  of,  defeated  by 
Hamilton,  243. 

New  York,  Assembly  of.  See  Legis- 
lature. 

New  York,  Convention  of.  See 
Legislature. 

Nicholas,  John,  offers  amendment 
to  discriminating  duties,  naming 
England,  174. 

North  Carolina,  postpones  ratifica- 
tion of  Constitution,  74;  enters 
Union  and  defeats  assumption  of 
state  debt,  121 ;  opposes  excise 
law,  179 ;  submits,  180. 

OTIS,  H.  G.,  letter  of  Hamilton  to, 
on  need  of  a  standing  army  to  re- 
press revolution,  259. 

44  PACIPICUS,"  essays  of,  169. 

Paine,  Thomas,  an  edition  of  his 
4( Rights  of  Man"  published  by 
Jefferson,  140. 

Pennsylvania,  censured  by  Congress 
for  failing  to  protect  it  against 
mutineers,  41  ;  Wyoming  question 
in,  51  ;  "  political  putrefaction  " 
in,  according  to  Hamilton,  178 ; 
resists  excise  law,  179,  180;  re- 
bellion in,  suppressed,  180-182; 
carried  by  Democrats,  223. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  leader  of  New 
England  Federalists,  199 ;  wishes 
war  with  France,  199;  attacks 
Adams,  226  ;  driven  from  cabinet, 
226 ;  letter  of  Hamilton  to,  on 
Great  Britain,  257;  his  admira- 


tion of  Hamilton,  287 ;  memo* 
randa  concerning  Hamilton's 
birth,  287-291. 

Pinckney,  Charles  Cotesworth,  re- 
fused reception  as  minister  to 
France,  198 ;  appointed  on  peace 
commission,  200;  appointed  ma- 
jor-general in  provisional  army, 
203  ;  accepts,  without  questioning, 
Hamilton's  higher  rank,  204  ;  con- 
fers  over  organization  of  army, 
206;  nominated  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  228  ;  preferred  by  Hamilton 
to  Adams,  229  ;  refuses  to  be  sep- 
arated by  South  Carolina  from 
Adams,  231,  232. 

Pinckney,  Thomas,  qualifications  as 
candidate  for  presidency,  192, 
candidate  for  vice-presidency,  192f 
193  ;  possibility  of  his  election  as 
President  according  to  Hamilton's 
scheme,  193;  preferred  by  Ham- 
ilton to  Adams,  193,  194;  de- 
feated, 194. 

Pitt,  William,  compared  with  Ham- 
ilton, 7,  27,  78,  92,  93. 

Protection,  Hamilton's  advocacy  of, 
107-113;  favored  by  first  Con- 
gress, 130. 

Public  credit,  Hamilton's  report  on, 
89-95. 

44  Publius,"  essays  of,  65. 

Putnam,  Israel,  made  to  hurry  his 
troops  by  Hamilton,  19. 

RANDOLPH,  EDMUND,  criticises  Ham- 
ilton's draft  of  address  of  An- 
napolis Convention,  54 ;  gives 
Washington  written  argument 
against  the  bank,  129. 

Republicans,  name  at  first  adopted 
by  Jefferson's  followers,  139.  See 
Democratic  party. 

Revolution,  War  of,  part  played  by 
Hamilton  in,  13-24;  battle  of 
Long  Island,  13;  White  Plains, 
14  ;  Trenton  campaign,  14 ;  cor- 
respondence of,  15,  16 ;  dealing* 
of  Washington  with  Gates,  18,  19; 
with  French,  20 ;  Yorktown,  23. 


INDEX 


315 


Reynolds,  Mrs.,  affair  of,  276. 

Rhode  Island,  refuses  to  grant  Con- 
gress an  impost,  38 ;  refuses  to 
call  convention  to  ratify  Constitu- 
tion, 74. 

Rivington,  James,  Tory  printer,  hi» 
press  destroyed  by  Whigs,  11. 

SCHTJYLER,  Miss  ELIZA,  letters  of 
Hamilton  to,  describing  Arnold's 
treachery,  20  ;  marries  Hamilton, 
her  character,  31. 

Schuyler,  General  Philip,  his  posi- 
tion and  character,  31 ;  likes  Ham- 
ilton, his  son-in-law,  32  ;  offers  to 
assist  him,  32 ;  elected  senator 
from  New  York,  80 ;  defeated  by 
Burr,  81. 

Sears,  Isaac,  letter  of  Hamilton  to, 
on  needs  of  confederacy,  29. 

Sedgwick,  Theodore,  letter  of  Ham- 
ilton to,  opposing  disunion,  2G6. 

Shays's  Rebellion,  51,  52  ;  its  influ- 
ence, 52. 

Smith,  Adam,  Hamilton's  familiar- 
ity with  his  writings  and  his  opin- 
ion of  them,  108. 

Smith,  Melancton,  heads  opposi- 
tion to  Constitution  in  New  York 
Convention,  70 ;  admits  absurdity 
of  conditional  ratification,  72  ;  ad- 
mits that  he  is  convinced  by  Ham- 
ilton, 72 ;  significance  of  his  state- 
ment, 75. 

Smith,  Colonel  William,  given  a 
position  by  Hamilton  at  Adams's 
request,  227. 

Smith,  William,  of  South  Carolina, 
furnished  by  Hamilton  with  speech 
on  discriminating  duties,  174  ;  let- 
ter of  Hamilton  to,  on  national 
policy,  256. 

Spain,  contemptuous  attitude  to- 
ward confederacy,  50 ;  difficulties 
with,  over  Mississippi,  153  ;  suc- 
cess of  Pinckney's  treaty  with, 
192;  attack  upon  its  American 
possessions  planned  by  Hamilton, 
209  ;  schemes  of  Miranda  against, 
211-213. 


Sparks,  Jared,  authority  for  Lafay. 

ette's  story  of  Hamilton's  leaving 

Washington's  staff,  296. 
Spencer,   Ambrose,    description   of 

Hamilton,  comparison  with  Web- 

ster, 273,  274. 
Stevens,  Edward,  letter  of  Hamilton 

to,  2  ;  supposed  to  be  Hamilton's 

illegitimate  brother,  286,  287  ;  his 

resemblance    to    Hamilton,   287, 

288,  290. 
Stoddert,    Benjamin,    asks    Hamil- 

ton's advice,  207. 

TALLEYRAND,  CHARLES  MAURICE  DB, 

seeks  to  reestablish  friendly  rela- 

tions   with   United    States   after 

X  Y  Z  affair,  213. 
Thurman,  -  ,  saved  by  Hamilton 

from  "  Travis's  mob,"  11. 
Tories,    strong   in    New  York,    6  ; 

have  pamphlet  controversy  with 

Hamilton,  8,  9  ;  try  in  vain  to  win 

Hamilton,    9  ;  mobbed,    10,    11  ; 

hated  in  New  York  after  war,  45  ; 
-  legislation    against,    46,   47  ;   de- 

fended  by    Hamilton,  47  ;  their 

proscription    enables    Burr    and 

Hamilton  to  control  law  practice 

in  New  York,  234. 
"Travis's  mob,"  opposed  by  Ham- 

ilton in  attacking  Thurman,  11. 
Treasury  Department,  organization 

of,  84-86. 
Treaty  of  peace,  censure  of  Ameri- 

can commissioners  for  manner  of 

making,  37. 

Trenton,  campaign  of,  14. 
Troup,  Robert,  helps  Hamilton  to 

save  Dr.  Cooper  from  mob,  10  ; 

warns  him  of  trials  of  Treasury 

Department,  83. 
Turgot,  compared  with  Hamilton, 

27. 


withdraws  agreement  to 
give  Congress  an  impost,  38  ; 
wishes  commercial  retaliation 
against  England,  52  ;  calls  Anna* 
polls  Convention,  63  ;  struggle  in, 


316 


INDEX 


over  ratification  of  Constitution, 
74 ;  demands  a  new  convention, 
79 ;  its  state-rights  sentiment 
affects  Madison,  117  ;  opposition 
in,  to  excise  law,  179 ;  submits, 
180. 

WASHINGTON,  GEORGE,  meets  Hamil- 
ton, through  Greene,  13;  saves 
army  from  Long  Island,  14;  re- 
fuses to  permit  Hamilton  to  storm 
Fort  Washington,  14 ;  appoints 
Hamilton  an  aide,  14 ;  employs 
Hamilton  to  conduct  his  corre- 
spondence, 15  ;  but  remains  the 
real  author  of  it,  16  ;  his  high  es- 
timate of  Hamilton's  ability,  17; 
wishes  to  avoid  difficulties  with 
Gates,  18,  19 ;  sends  Hamilton 
on  mission  to  get  troops,  19 ; 
approves  his  action,  19 ;  re- 
proves Hamilton  for  dilatoriness, 
21 ;  real  kindliness  of  his  action, 
22 ;  his  interest  in  Hamilton  not 
diminished  by  the  quarrel,  23 ; 
fears  evil  consequences  from  neg- 
lect of  soldiers  by  Congress,  39 ; 
warns  Hamilton  against  using 
army  to  threaten  Congress,  40 ; 
checks  movement  at  Newburgh, 
40 ;  importance  of  his  action,  40, 
41  ;  thanked  by  Congress,  41 ;  one 
of  few  to  think  "  continentally," 
48  ;  effect  of  his  influence  in  Vir- 
ginia in  behalf  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, 74 ;  elected  President,  81  ; 
decides  upon  Hamilton  for  Trea- 
sury Department,  83 ;  convinced 
by  Hamilton  of  constitutionality 
of  bank,  103,  130  ;  said  by  Demo- 
crats to  be  hoodwinked  by  Ham- 
ilton, 137  ;  assailed  by  Jefferson 
and  Mason  with  criticisms  of 
Hamilton's  conduct,  141,  142 ; 
submits  Mason's  complaints  to 
Hamilton,  142 ;  grieved  at  news- 
paper controversy  of  Hamilton 
and  Jefferson,  145;  tries  to  in- 
duce both  to  cease,  145 ;  his  for 
eigu  policy,  151 ;  sounds  England 


as  to  renewal  of  diplomatic  rela- 
tions, 155 ;  approves  Hamilton 
rather  than  Jefferson,  156,  157; 
loses  sympathy  with  French  Re- 
volution, 158 ;  sent  for  by  Hamil- 
ton at  outbreak  of  English  and 
French  war,  159  ;  approves  Ham- 
ilton's policy  of  neutrality,  160, 
161  ;  real  author  of  Monroe  doc- 
trine, 161  ;  adopts  Hamilton's 
views  as  to  treatment  of  French 
privateers,  166  ;  indignant  at  Jef- 
ferson's weakness  in  Little  Sarah 
case,  167  ;  sympathizes  with  Ham- 
ilton, but  refrains  from  severe 
measures  against  Genet,  170, 171 ; 
decides  to  submit  Hammond  cor- 
respondence to  Congress  as  well 
as  Genet's,  173  ;  approves  plan  of 
special  mission  to  England,  175 ; 
wishes  to  nominate  Hamilton, 
175 ;  but,  to  prevent  discord,  se. 
lects  Jay,  176  ;  reasons  for  so  do. 
ing,  176,  177  ;  issues  proclama 
tion  against  excise  riots,  180; 
calms  troubles  in  South,  180;  calU 
for  troops  to  crush  Whiskey  Re« 
bellion,  181;  leads  the  expedi. 
tion,  181 ;  denounces  Democratic 
societies,  183  ;  unmoved  by  clamor 
against  Jay  treaty,  187  ;  irritated 
by  English  provision  order,  189 ; 
consults  Hamilton  as  to  signing 
treaty,  190  ;  ratifies  treaty  with 
protest  against  provision  order, 
190  ;  withdraws  from  politics,  191 ; 
his  success  in  managing  Hamil- 
ton, 197 ;  accepts  command  of 
provisional  army,  203  ;  nominates 
major-generals,  203 ;  obliges  Ad- 
ams to  accept  Hamilton  as  the 
first,  204 ;  accepts  Hamilton's 
plans  for  organization,  206 ;  letter 
of  Hamilton  to,  on  Democratic 
party,  258  ;  only  man  beside  Ham- 
ilton to  perceive  destiny  of  United 
States,  279. 

Washington,  city,  question  of  ita 
site  used  as  material  for  bargain 
by  Hamilton,  121,  122;  traded  to 


INDEX 


317 


South  for  assumption  of  state 
debt,  122, 125. 

Washington,  Fort,  offer  of  Hamil- 
ton to  recapture  by  storm,  14. 

Webster,  Daniel,  compared  to  Ham- 
ilton, 273. 

West,  expansion  of  United  States 
toward,  foreseen  by  Hamilton, 
209,  210,  279. 

West  Point,  Arnold's  treachery  at, 
20;  question  of  its  purchase  re- 
ferred to  Adams,  85  ;  Academy  at, 
established,  208. 

Whiskey  Rebellion,  causes,  178, 
179  ;  proclamations  against,  180 ; 
increasing  violence  of,  180 ;  sup- 
pression, 181 ;  significance  of,  182. 

White  Plains,  battle  of,  14. 


Wilson,  James,  in  Congress  of  1782, 
35. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  asks  Hamilton's 
advice  as  secretary  of  the  trea- 
sury, 207  ;  letter  of  Hamilton  to, 
on  Democratic  party,  254 ;  and  on 
France,  256. 

X  Y  Z  correspondence  sent  to  Coiv 
gress,  201. 

YARD,  JAMES,  account  of  Hamilton's 
birth  and  parentage,  287-291. 

Yates,  Robert,  chosen  delegate  to 
Federal  Convention,  56  ;  opposes 
Constitution  in  New  York  Con- 
vention, 70. 

Yorktown,  Hamilton  at  siege  of,  23. 


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and  Index,  i6mo,  gilt  top,  $1.25  net ;  postage  extra.  The  set,  19 
vols.,  $23.75  net ;  half  polished  morocco,  $52.25  net. 

The  books  which  form  this  series  are  scholarly  and  readable  individually  • 
tehtctively,  the  series,  when  completed,  will  present  a  history  of  the  nation,  setting- 
fort  h  in  lucid  and  vigorous  style  the  varieties  of  government  and  of  social  lift  t» 
\€ found  in  the  various  commonwealths  included  in  the  federal  union. 

CALIFORNIA.    By  JOSIAH  ROYCE. 

CONNECTICUT.    By  ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON.  (Revised  Ed.; 

INDIANA.    By  J.  P.  DUNN,  JR.     (Revised  Edition.) 

KANSAS.    By  LEVERETT  W.  SPRING.     (Revised  Edition.) 

KENTUCKY.    By  NATHANIEL  SOUTHGATE  SHALER. 

LOUISIANA.    By  ALBERT  PHELPS. 

MARYLAND.    By  WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE.    (Revised  EA) 

MICHIGAN.    By  THOMAS  M.  COOLEY.    (Revised  Edition.) 

MINNESOTA.    By  WM.  W.  FOLWELL. 

MISSOURI.    By  LUCIEN  CARR. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE.    By  FRANK  B.  SANBORN. 

NEW  YORK.    By  ELLIS  H.  ROBERTS.   2  vols.    (Revised  EA) 

OHIO.    By  RUFUS  KING.     (Revised  Edition.) 

RHODE  ISLAND.    By  IRVING  B.  RICHMAN. 

TEXAS.    By  GEORGE  P.  GARRISON. 

VERMONT.    By  ROWLAND  E.  ROBINSOH. 

VIRGINIA.    By  JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE.    (Revised  Edition.) 

WISCONSIN.    By  REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES. 

In  preparation 

GEORGIA.    By  ULRICH  B.  PHILLIPS. 
ILLINOIS.    By  JOHN  H.  FINLEY. 
IOWA.    By  ALBERT  SHAW. 
MASSACHUSETTS.    By  EDWARD  CHANNING. 
NEW  JERSEY.    By  AUSTIN  SCOTT. 
OREGON.    By  F.  H.  HODDER. 
PENNSYLVANIA.    By  TALCOTT  WILLIAMS. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


AMERICAN  STATESMEN 

Biographies  of  Men  famous  in  the  Political  History  of  the  United 
States.  Edited  by  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR.  Each  volume,  i6mo, 
gilt  top,  $1.25  net,  postage  extra.  The  set,  31  volumes,  $38.75  net; 
half  morocco,  $85.25  net. 

Separately  they  are  interesting  and  entertaining  biographies  of  our  most  emi- 
nent public  men ;  as  a  series  they  are  especially  remarkable  as  constituting  a 
history  of  American  Politics  and  policies  more  complete  and  more  use ful for  in- 
struction and  reference  than  any  that  I  am  aware  of.  —  HON.  JOHN  W.  GKIGGS, 
Ex-United  States  Attorney-General. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.    By  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 

SAMUEL  ADAMS.     By  JAMES  K.  HOSMEK. 

PATRICK  HENRY.     By  MOSES  COIT  TYLER. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON.      By  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,    a  volumes. 

JOHN  ADAMS.     By  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.     By  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE. 

GOUVERNEUR  MORRIS.    By  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

JOHN  JAY.     By  GEORGE  PELLEW. 

JOHN  MARSHALL.     By  ALLAN  B.  MAGRUDER. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON.    By  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 

JAMES  MADISON.    By  SYDNEY  HOWARD  GAY. 

ALBERT  GALLATIN.    By  JOHN  AUSTIN  STEVENS. 

JAMES  MONROE.    By  D.  C.  OILMAN. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.     By  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR.  , 

JOHN  RANDOLPH.     By  HENRY  ADAMS. 

ANDREW  JACKSON.     By  W.  G.  SUMNER. 

MARTIN  VAN  BUREN.     By  EDWARD  W.  SHBPARD. 

HENRY  CLAY.     By  CARL  SCHURZ.    2  volumes. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER.    By  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE. 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN.    By  DR.  H.  VON  HOLST. 

THOMAS  H,  BENTON.    By  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

LEWIS  CASS.     By  ANDREW  C.  MCLAUGHLIN. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.    By  JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR.     2  volumes. 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD.    By  THORNTON  K.  LOTHROP. 

SALMON  P.  CHASE.     By  ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART. 

CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS.    By  C.  F.  ADAMS,  JR. 

CHARLES  SUMNER.    By  MOORFIELD  STOREY. 

THADDEUS  STEVENS.    By  SAMUEL  W.  McCALL. 

SECOND   SERIES 

Biographies  of  men  particularly  influential  in  the  recent  Political  History  of  the 
Nation.     Each  volume,  with  Portrait,  izmo,  $1.25  net;  postage  extra. 
This  second  series  is  intended  to  supplement  the  original  list  of  A  merican 
Statesmen  by  the  addition  of  the  names  of  men  who  have  helped  to  make  the  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War. 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE.  By  EDWARD  STANWOOD. 
JOHN  SHERMAN.  By  THEODORE  E.  BURTON. 
ULYSSES  S,  GRANT.  By  SAMUEL  W.  McCALL.  In  preparation. 

Other  interesting  additions  to  the  list  to  be  made  in  the  future. 

HOUGHTON  MFFLIN  COMPANY 


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